Killer: Bane
by DeathDrayanD
Summary: The continuation of Killer, where Rayand (Ryan) partakes in the Prophecy of Bane. The Bane is said to be powerful and mighty. Can Ryan handle it? Rated T for violence and dark thoughts(?). [DISCONTINUED]
1. Chapter 1

**Are you excited!? Are you!? I am! First chapter! Yeah! Random exclamations!**

 **Alright, enough messing around... Now, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. May I present, the sequel of Killer, Killer: Bane!**  
 ***background music intensifies***

 **Fun Fact- This was inspired by Re:Zero**

* * *

A sound of metal against metal rang out.

It came from the arena. Roars could be heard, cheering for the people who were clashing their blades with each other. The usual drills in the arena was replaced by an intense battle.

There were only two contestants. One held a broadsword and wore a fancy full-plated armor with streaks of gold, while the other had two daggers and simply wore a silky garb with a few metal pieces of armor strapped onto his limbs and a belt of pockets on his waist. The heavily armored fellow's movement was obviously slower, but that didn't stop him from relentlessly attacking him.

The latter countered his every move, narrowly blocking his swings and backtracking, occasionally slicing at his armor. The fully geared may be bulky, but his strength and defense was much higher than his opponent. He could truly be called a human tank.

However, just because he was tougher, doesn't mean he could hit his opponent. His strikes lacked the speed to leave a scratch on him. The nimble one -the one easily wrecking the crap out of golden boy with his swiftness- was none other than me, Ryan the Warrior.

The armored person, named Dupsef, drove his sword into the ground and used it as a support to lean his hands on it, panting heavily.

"You done?" I taunted. "Come on, at least give me a workout. I'm barely breaking a sweat here!"

As on cue, beads of perspiration slowly trickled down my forehead. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. He didn't seem to notice. Phew.

I wiped them off and continued. "Where's that spirit about beating me? Do you really call yourself the top soldier after all that big talk?"

Dupsef gripped the hilt tighter and charged once more with his broadsword being dragged along, letting out a battlecry.

I sighed heavily and shook my head. "Rule one: Never give in to your enemy's taunt."

Once I had finished my advice, he was already in front of me. He raised his weapon high up into the air with a shout and heaved it downwards with one hand. Predictable. I lightly hopped sideways.

But then something unexpected happened. In mid-swing, he smirked and instantIy changed the course of the blade, grabbing the hilt with both hands and bringing the blade to me. A feint.

 _So he can use his brain after all._

Out of pure physical reflex, I jumped up once my feet touched the ground and slammed my hand onto the flat side of the blade, unintentionally riding it.

He looked at me like I've done the impossible. But I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I didn't waste any time and used that chance to attack.

I used the blade as my foothold and quickly closed the distance between us, forcibly removing his helmet and using it as a glove to punch him square in the jaw. The sudden realization hit him hard, literally.

He staggered back a few paces, unconsciously releasing his weapon. I threw the helm in a random direction and tossed my daggers up into the air, grabbing his own broadsword and heaving it towards him.

I let the hilt go right before the blade would hit the armor. A loud clang resonated. He tumbled down; his teeth clattering due to the impact. Echolocation told me my daggers were in hands' reach. I got back my weapon and dashed towards him, pointing the tip of my dagger at his neck as he tried to get up.

A few seconds of silence ensued, then a huge applause from the large audience.

Only one word was being shouted, over and over again.

"Warrior! Warrior! Warrior!"

I welcomed the shower of cheers targeted at me. Almost forgetting that Dupsef was still down, I kept my daggers back into their respective compartments and offered him a hand.

"You may have power, but what good is it if you can't catch your enemy? It takes more than brute strength to win a fight."

He sneered at me and refused my hand (and probably advice), getting up on his own. But there was a look of acknowledgement in his eyes. His pride just doesn't want to show that externally.

He stood, got his broadsword back and stomped away noisily, grumbling. I 'saw' Mareth jogging up towards me.

"Do you think he will be fine?"

"Oh, he will. That big pride of his won't go down that easily."

"Hm."

Ares flew and landed beside me.

"So, how was that?"

"Great, as always."

A sudden thought occurred to me. "Hey, Ares? Would you mind if I sparred with you? I haven't fought a flier before."

He raised his head up and did that for a while. If he was human, he would be stroking his chin.

"I will not mind. But I cannot spar with you now. Perhaps tomorrow?" he offered, but there was a hint of sadness in it.

"Nah, not tomorrow. Maybe after finishing the soldiers."

Ares merely nodded and took off to wherever he's going. I focused my attention to the massive crowd, who showed no signs of stopping their chant.

Stretching my arm high up into the air, I pumped my fist up into the air. Sort of like a victory pose. Their reply was a much louder cheer.

I absorbed their praises while thinking back to when I had chosen to stay in the Underland. That was about a few weeks ago. Or was it a few months? I couldn't remember. Time was hard to tell in the Underland, due to the lack of the sun. I had my watch before, but I gave it to some Underlander kid because he was ogling at it when I walked past him. Once I strapped it onto his wrist, he ran off to a bunch of other Underlander kids and proudly showed them his new gift by ' _the legendary Warrior_ '.

I had asked Vikus about what I could do in the Underland. He was, at first, hesitant to answer, but I convinced him to spill it out. Apparently he thought that being a common foot soldier was an embarrassment for the Warrior.

But I didn't mind. I immediately accepted his suggestion, for his and my sake. I subtly thanked him for letting me stay and went off to sign up as one of the Regalian army. Naturally, the council was very surprised. I had heard snippets of 'bane' and 'training' once I had requested. I didn't think much of their conversation. After their short and active discussion, they unanimously accepted. It was rather quick, but I was too excited to care.

I had basically three reasons for joining. Firstly, it felt very nostalgic and it was the only sensible thing for me to do. Secondly, I wanted to boost the skills of the soldiers, since they weren't really up to my standards. Thirdly, I needed to find a way to activate my Rager. I had tried to unleash that very raw power again by forcefully angering myself, but to no avail. Becoming a soldier was the best way to unlock it again.

Right after being one, I made an announcement. I would duel each and every soldier, to test their prowess and mine, and to analyze the gap between me and them.

So far, I had fought over probably hundreds of soldiers, maybe even thousands. Some battled one on one, while some others tried to use two or three on one to try to beat me. They all failed.

One of them, Dupsef of course, claimed to be the best. I was actually thrilled when he said that, but that excitement died as soon as we fought.

Anyways, back to the main event. The applause was still going on. Man, did they ever get tired clapping? It was getting a little annoying, to say the least. Too consistent.

"Who dares to challenge me, the Warrior!?"

My shout earned not only the silence of their cheers, but also murmurs from the crowd. They were probably discussing about who should fight me. No one shouted a name, not like last time.

"Anyone!? Anyone at all?"

Still none. Damn. Would it kill to have Ripred to be here?

When about five seconds passed, I gave up. I released the strain on my raised hand and headed for the exit.

"Tomorrow it is, then!"

While the crowd slowly left, the Underlanders quickly resumed their training. Children no more than six were stabbing dummies in seemingly complicated patterns. Groups of Underlanders of all ages were spreading around doing various kinds of stretches and calisthenics. Some were running laps around the arena. Others were sparing each other to prepare themselves so that they could fight me. Maybe. I hope so.

I leaned on the wall of the exit and watched their active activities for a while more before going to the armory.

Once at the entrance, I knocked on the stone door four times in two short intervals. The sequence for the Warrior's coming. I had specifically told the council to tell everyone about it. The Warrior's knock, they called it. It was cringy, but I got used to it. Thankfully.

"Come in, Warrior."

The armorer welcomed me in. I opened the door with a light shove and an old and pale-skinned yet fit woman tweaking a chestplate greeted me. She was Miravet, Solovet's sister.

"Hey, Miravet. The usual again, please," I said, offering both my arms to her as if I was getting arrested. Heh. Arrested. That put a smile on my lips.

She stopped working on the chestplate and focused her attention on removing my armor.

"You seem happy today. Find you a good soldier today?"

I did a short laugh. "No, unfortunately. I have to make them buck up. Need to find someone who can match me."

There were a few people I thought could give me a good workout. Solovet was one, but she said she was too busy. Mareth was a good choice, but his calf still hasn't healed up completely. I didn't want to give myself an advantage. He still could command others though, which I thought he was excellent at. Vikus could, but I considered him as 'unprepared'. I didn't want to wear the old man out. And I hadn't seen the Queen for quite some time now. There was Ripred, but he was probably still gathering followers.

While I was still internally complaining about Ripred, Miravet finished removing them. I could do it myself, but I didn't want to because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to properly take the bits off. Some parts were pretty difficult to unlatch. So I always left it in her care.

"I do not know what 'buck up' means, but I am certain someone of your skill will appear."

I exercised my arms to circulate my blood and spoke. "Yeah, and that someone is Ripred, who is far away from here." Miravet frowned. "Sorry, didn't mean to offend you."

"It is fine." She quickly changed the topic. "Do you mind if I borrow your belt?"

"My belt? Yeah, sure."

I unbuckled and handed it to her. She carefully took it and placed it onto her workbench, examining the compartments. That was what she always did whenever she had finished removing my armor. She was interested in it and my vest since we first met, and had tried to replicate it many times, but failed each time as it was custom made and pretty complex. Some materials didn't exist in the Underland. I forgot how the schematics worked, but I still tried to help her, explaining to her what was what and what probably goes where.

After watching her work and taking back my belt, I went outside and whistled for Ares. He was in front of me in seconds. I hopped onto him and he took off, heading towards my room.

Once we had arrived at my balcony, I unmounted and we went our separate ways. I walked into my room and tossed my stuff away, all of which landed right onto my backpack, flattening it.

I did a quick shower to wash away the sweat and laid down on my queen-sized bed, taking out a leather notebook. It contained all the names of the soldiers. Solovet had given it to me. I had tried to reject it once, but she had reassured me, saying: "Do not worry. I have another one." and waving the exact same copy at me.

I opened it to where I had bookmarked and slowly crossed the names of everyone I had fought today with my fountain pen I had stolen before in the Overland. One might think I was making a hit list. But I wasn't, at least for the Underlanders.

Lastly, I cancelled Dupsef's name and shut the book. A piece of paper a little larger than the book stuck out. It had the list of people I wanted to fight but couldn't. I sighed again. Today was a long day. I had beaten about 31 soldiers. A new record from the previous, 28.

Being too lazy to sit up, I placed the notebook at the edge of the bed and rolled to the comfortable side, closing my eyes.

I didn't want to sleep, but I was too tired to complain, so I succumbed to my bodily needs soon after.

 _Complete darkness. There was nothing but that. I tried echolocation, but all I got was emptiness all around me. I couldn't 'see' what I was standing on. I tapped the ground with my sandals, but no sound came out. Was I deaf? Was I blind? I used all my other senses, but they all were gone. Vanished. It was as if I never had them at all._

 _Panic and fear strangled me, like a wild prey trying to escape from its predator._

 _What's going on? Where was I? Why was I here?_

 _Pain and agony started to hammer down into my head. I let out a scream, but I couldn't hear it. A warm liquid leaked out of my ears._

 _I felt like vomiting, but it didn't come out. The ball of acid was stuck in my stomach. I couldn't get it out. My body didn't let me._

 _How long the torture happened, I didn't know. All I knew that it was an excruciatingly long process. A sense of loss overcame me. I felt so helpless. So powerless. So weak._

 _Only one question remained inside the wreckage of my brain._

 _"Who am I?"_

 _I said that aloud. I could hear._

 _Many voices replied. Distorted. They said one word in unison._

 _"Monster."_

 _Somehow I felt heavy, both internally and externally. The gravity increased dramatically, forcing my knees to buckle and slamming my body flat onto the ground._

 _Then, something was shoved into my chest._

A horrified scream entered my eardrums. I awoke and looked around, searching for the source of it. Strangely, large quantities of air was being sucked in and out of my mouth. It was then I realised that I was gasping for air.

I shut my agape mouth and took deep, long breaths. My breathing regulated, but my heart didn't. It was beating pretty fast. Too fast.

I squeezed the left side of my sweaty shirt, where my heart was. I remembered.

 _Damn it. I had them again._

Ever since my journey of the Prophecy of Gray ended, I started to have dreams. Whispers of people. Then those dreams gradually turned into nightmares. Those nightmares would increase in intensity and I had to experience them all as if they were freshly new.

Today was the worst one yet. The feeling of death. From suffering to being killed.

Whenever I slept, I subconsciously knew I was going to have them again. But in the nightmares, my subconscious was not there. It- _He_ \- was never there.

I slammed my fist onto my bed and pushed it to the very edge of my mind, where the rest were. I was so irritated. When will they ever stop?

I got out of my bed and walked to the bathroom. I wanted to wash my face, as it was quite numb. But before I could even reach the door handle of the bathroom, an Underlander barged into my room with a worried expression on his face; a sword on his hand. A guard.

"Warrior! I heard shouts from your quarters! Are you-"

He stopped his speech and stared at me. His face went from worried to terrified and pity in a matter of seconds.

"What?"

My voice. It sounded so miserable but mad at the same time. What was that?

"W-why do you weep, Warrior?"

His tone became sympathetic but scared. His hands were shaking. I instinctively touched my face. A sticky liquid was on my cheeks. Tears. I immediately wiped them away, but the damage was already done. He had seen it.

"Do not tell anyone about this. Even if they force you to tell, don't say anything. Got it?"

He gulped and nervously nodded.

"Good, now leave me."

"B-but your-"

"I SAID LEAVE!"

He whimpered and ran off, away from the madman. Away from me.

For a moment, I just stood there. Looking at where the guard once was. Looking at the emptiness. I concentrated on the space so much that my vision blurred.

All of a sudden, one emotion rose to the top. Hate. It made me kick the door shut and storm into the bathroom and look at the pocket mirror I had screwed on the stone wall. In the mirror, I saw myself. My eyes were bloodshot, puffy and watery. They were full of fear and pain.

"Damn it!"

In one swift motion, I punched the wall, right beside the mirror. The wall and my bones cracked. I ignored the pain and kept thumping. More cracks started to form on the wall. More blood began to leak out of my knuckles.

One final hit on the wall made a dent a size of a fist. _My_ fist.

I hated myself. I hated the fact that I had let a person reveal my true face. My mask had been broken, if only a little. Deep down, I was suffering. Suffering from all those nightmares. They haunted me.

They were coming back again, flowing back to my memories like a tidal wave. The feeling of having your eyeballs gouged out, having your limbs torn slowly, having your body burned and frozen and so much more.

The bile got out of my system and into the sink. When I was done puking, I cupped my hands into the ever-flowing water and splashed it onto my face. The red on my eyes subsided a little. Next, the horrors.

I closed my eyes and mentally shoved all of them back to their cage.

 _Don't think of them now. Think happy. Think fighting._

Once I was sure they were in check, I opened my eyes and stared hard at the mirror. The fear and agony were gone.

 _Good, good. Alright. I'm okay now. I'm okay._

I bathed and came out refreshed. Nothing is as good as taking a steaming bath. Except fighting, of course.

While I was drying my hair with the silky and super-absorbant towel, I finally noticed a tray of food on my desk. Was it there before or after the guard came in? I decided to check, touching my breakfast with my clean hand. It felt cold.

Crap. That means I'm late.

I crammed the half of the food into my mouth and grabbed my belt, running and chewing and fitting my belt at the same time.

I managed to gulp the whole thing down with my saliva as soon as I had reached the balcony and leaped into the air, whistling sharply.

A dash of black flew beneath me. Then, I was mounting on Ares.

I wheezed and coughed out the words. "Hey, Ares. How late am I?"

"Ten minutes." He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but quickly closed it. I knew what he wanted to say.

"What happened to me, right?"

He nodded. "I heard your shouts. I tried to fly to you, but the guards did not let me pass. I am sorry, Warrior." He made it sound like he was the one at fault.

I patted his head. "It's okay, Ares. It was just a nightmare. Just a nightmare."

Why did I say it as if he was the one having the nightmare? Was I trying to convince myself?

Silence followed after that.

Soon, Ares landed outside the armory. I rushed towards it and pushed the door open. Miravet stood there with my armor in her hands.

"Come quick! You are late!"

She strapped them on as fast as she could and double-checked to see if it was secure. She patted me on the shoulder, signalling that she was done preparing me. I thanked her and bolted for the arena.

Once I had stepped foot onto the stadium, the whispers from the audience instantly erupted into cheers.

I waved at them and let out a shout louder than theirs.

"Who wants to fight me?"

Suddenly, there was a high pitched sound that silenced the crowd. One person called out in a strong voice.

"I will."

* * *

 **Yay! Cliffhanger again! Don't you all love it?**  
 **Thank you for being very patient with me! Exams are around the corner for me, but why should I let that stop me? (Please don't follow my example.)**  
 **Question: Who do you think said "I will"?**  
 **Anyways, review and criticize!**


	2. Chapter 2

**For all of you who guessed it was Ripred, you're wrong. Sorry to disappoint. (Don't worry, he's gonna come soon.)**

 **Fun Fact- My favorite colors are blue and black, like my soul. But with a sense of humor.**

 **Lyrics of the Week: "Just sit back and relax, don't worry. The world can wait, don't need to hurry." -LemminoMusic (Infinity) [Check him out! He makes great music, but he's too unpopular...]**

* * *

I turned to the source of the voice. What I saw amused me.

There, in front of the entrance of the stadium, stood purple and gold. Luxa and Aurora, respectively.

The Queen still had her golden band on her head, with her hair a little grown out and cropped off close to her head like the one she had in our first journey. She was equipped with a polished mix of leather and chainmail armor. Beneath her leather bodice was a hauberk. She wore leather bracers, gorget, tassets, corset; metal spaulders, leggings and boots, all in different shades of purple, mostly in dark shades. She also wore two metal bracelets, both of which were intricately and uniquely designed. The sword she was holding seemed thin like a rapier, but I couldn't really tell since it was sheathed.

Overall, she screamed stunning and beautiful. Any man who set their sights on her would probably fall in love, which is already proved by the loud whistles of the male Underlanders. Of course, I wasn't 'any man'.

I noticed Aurora closing her mouth.

 _So she was the one who screeched. Bravo, Queen. Nice entrance._

The crowd went crazy, shouting at the top of their lungs, even louder than I had previously heard. Apparently, she never told anyone about this.

The Queen began to stride towards me with elegance and grace, while Aurora flew and joined a group of fliers in the audience. I bowed deeply once she stopped a few meters in front of me.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Your Majesty?" I asked in a cheeky tone.

She cocked her head in confusion. "Did the guard not tell you?"

"Guard?" I was puzzled by her statement for a second. Then, I remembered. The guard that barged into my room was the messenger. He was supposed to tell me about this, but I had cut him off due to my -dare I say- overwhelming emotions. I felt a little guilty, but I didn't want to show that to her.

"Oh, him. I may have kinda... chased him out."

Now it was her turn to be amused. "Oh? And why is that?"

I shrugged. "Let's not talk about that and focus on this." I whipped out my two favorite daggers and took a defensive stance. "Ready whenever you are, Queen."

She unsheathed her sword and, to my surprise, crouched. She lowered and positioned herself like a sprinter getting ready to run, but with a sword at the back, pointing diagonally downwards. So this is how she duels. Crouching like a predator, ready to strike at her prey on any given moment.

 _Interesting._

Rather than circling around her to force her to repeatedly change her position, I merely waited for her move, anticipation gleaming in my eyes.

And then, the Queen moved. Just after she shifted into place, she shot out like a catapult.

In a blink of an eye, she had closed the distance between us. In that blink, my Rager hadn't activated. In that blink, I took a step back, not expecting that to happen. All of those fuelled my will and instinct to counterattack, and I forcefully swung my right-hand dagger.

But that was a fatal mistake. I had put too much strength in that swing, causing my literal downfall as I began to lose my balance.

The Queen used my stupidity to her advantage, positioning herself below me and thrusting her sword forward, towards my chest. An image of a blade puncturing my chest suddenly filled my brain, reminding me of my very recent nightmare. In a panic, I used my left dagger to slam the blade downwards. It connected, bringing her blade onto the ground and creating a small dust cloud. I quickly retreated to the edge of the arena, away from her.

Several drops of sweat dripped from my head. I wiped them off with my sleeve. I squeezed my eyes shut and clutched my chest, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart.

 _Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Relax. Don't think of them._

When I thought I did, I opened my eyes and checked my hands. They were shaking, but mildly, luckily. I ran my hand down on my face, putting back my 'mask'. My usual face returned.

I looked back to where the Queen just was. She wasn't there anymore, but instead was already dashing towards me, only slower this time. At that distance, she shouldn't be able to see my face.

I questioned her speed. Had she already exhausted her stamina already? Or did she have no time to reposition herself and just attacked?

I really hoped it was the latter.

I went back to my stance and waited again, focusing on her breathing, her arms, her legs and her sword. Every small action she took from those, I noticed. Once she was in close proximity, she drove her blade down, straight to my head.

But I had predicted that. I crisscrossed my daggers to her blade, blocking it. Before I could let her attack again, I pushed her sword away and struck a fist right at her gut. Despite her protection with the hauberk and leather bodice, I still managed to send her flying, distancing ourselves once again.

Her body twirled and flipped in mid-air as she tried to position herself correctly, successfully landing on the ground with a soft thud. She then gripped her belly while wincing in pain, but still managed to give me a half smile.

"Your strength and speed is admirable."

I mocked surprise. "The Queen is praising me? How flattering."

For the first time in like, forever, she laughed. Not one of the fake forced laughter- it was a full, genuine laugh.

I relaxed my body to let her enjoy her moment. She probably came here to relieve her stress. I understood and respected that. I could ask her why to confirm my theory, but I didn't want to kill her happy mood.

After a little while, her laughter died down into chuckles and then went back to being serious.

"I am sorry for interrupting our duel. Shall we continue?"

I nodded firmly and charged at her. She did the same and we both clashed blades. She tried to do a feint by swinging her sword to my right and then suddenly veering it to my left, but I saw that coming.

I parried it with one dagger, followed by a stab for the neck with the other. Unfortunately for me, her reflexes were quicker than I thought as my daggers were blocked by a blade and a bracelet. Irked by that, I punted her knee, forcing her leg to be straightened, earning a shout of pain from the Queen (which quenched my sadism I couldn't get rid of), and causing her balance to be slightly off.

But no matter how slight it was, it still was an opening. I engaged by striking a flurry of jabs at her, most of which she tried to block. The rest tore through parts of her leather bodice but still did not damage her due to her hauberk. She was in the defensive. My aggressiveness of my attacks made her back out, step by step.

In the heat of the battle, something caught her eye, and her face fell. Her defense suddenly faltered and resulted in my dagger pointing at her neck.

The crowd went crazy again, breaking into louder and louder cheers every second, and chanting my title again.

But I wasn't in the mood for their praises. Anger boiled within me. What could be so upsetting that made her divert her attention from me? I couldn't help but follow her gaze as curiousity took over my senses. She was looking at the entrance of the arena, where an unfamiliar group of five kids were standing. One of the five, a girl, was not clapping like the others but instead weirdly and gleefully grinning away.

The Queen then eyed between me and my dagger in surprise, almost as if she never realized that I had a dagger pointing right at her. I groaned softly, which was more of a sigh, and kept both daggers back into their compartments. She also did the same and sheathed her sword.

"Let's hold this duel for now."

She merely nodded; her face saddened by either the fact that she lost to me or the appearance of that group. Now that I looked closer, she had lilac circles under her eyes. Huh. She must've had a really bad time.

I focused my gaze to the group once again. "Who are they that made you so distracted?"

"My cousins. They must have arrived in Regalia," said The Queen stiffly, a tone that felt unfitting for the future queen of Regalia.

"Are they different from your other two cousins, that Neri- something and Hen-" I bit my tongue. "...him?"

"Nerissa," she corrected. "Yes, Nerissa and... Henry." That last word cost her some effort to say. As if she was afraid to say that name. She took a deep breath before continuing. "They are the only royal cousins I have ever had. Our fathers were brothers, sons of a king, and of the royal family."

As in cue, the cousins began to head over to us, specifically the Queen. She nodded at them with her signature half-smile, but this time, it wasn't genuine anymore. Her eyes burned with obvious dislike.

"These five I am related to are on my mother's side. They are not of royal blood, although they greatly desire to be so."

"Not a fan of them, huh?" I said, folding my arms.

The Queen was confused at that unfamiliar term for a moment, but that quickly dissolved as she seemingly understood the gist of it.

"They make fun of Nerissa. Of her gift and her frailty," said Luxa. "No, we do not... that is, I do not like them."

So the pain and burden of losing Henry still dwelled in there. She would probably get over it in a year or so.

"They are only here on a visit from the Fount. Hopefully it will be a short one," said the Queen. It sounded like she was reassuring herself.

The Queen and her cousins exchanged brief, formal greetings, and then she introduced me to them. The oldest, Howard, was probably about sixteen and looked like an avid bodybuilder. There was a girl named Stellovet, maybe thirteen or so, who had flowing, silvery blond curls. She was the classic representation of a beauty, but I had a pretty bad vibe about her. She was the one who was happily smiling at the Queen.

Next in line was a pair of younger twins, a girl named Hero and a boy called Kent. Lastly, there was a little girl, maybe five or so, who was named Chimney and was clinging tightly onto Stellovet's hand.

All of them had troubles taking their eyes off me, probably because I was the Warrior or an Overlander. Maybe both.

"Greetings, Ryan the Overlander. We have heard much of your deeds and are grateful for your stay," Howard said, civilly enough. He seemed and sounded alright.

"Thanks, I guess."

"Oh," said Stellovet, her voice dripping with honey. I resisted the urge to cringe.

 _Oh, great. It's another one of those. A person with a superiority complex. And a girl, no less._

"We were _so_ glad you were there to defend Luxa on the quest."

She sounded so sarcastic yet hateful at the same time. Just like-

I stopped that train of thought. No. Stop it. Stop the bad memories.

But they still emerged against my will. Especially the memory of a young, rich woman, who was one of my targets. She even had the guts to sass me although I had her at knife-point. She had complained on and on about how unfair her life was and then even taunted me that I wouldn't dare to kill her. After that, she didn't have the guts anymore. That's because her guts was ripped out by-

The memory turned blank, as if someone had pressed the stop button. That someone was me. I couldn't bear to remember all of that. I had to lock up most of my past memories deep inside my brain again, but I knew that wouldn't hold them out for long. I knew, and yet, it was currently the only way for me to temporarily forget.

 _I really need to drink after all of this is over._

I was too busy focusing on that that I had almost forgotten about the cousins.

"... Overlander? Warrior, how fare you?"

It was the Queen who had asked that. I shook my head and said, "Yeah? I'm fine."

She was a little skeptical but didn't push it. The cousins and her were worried about me, as seen on their faces. Stellovet looked the most worried, like she pitied me.

"What is it?" I asked Stellovet, a bit too harshly.

Stellovet only blinked in surprise. She was about to repeat her sentence when I remembered what she had said.

"Oh yeah, about me defending Luxa on the quest. I don't really see myself as a defender or a guardian. But considering the number of rats we had to fight, I guess I owe her."

That was a lie. She owed me, like the time when I ordered Lizzie to shoot the root beer at the spider queen.

Stellovet's eyes narrowed, but she gave me a sweet smile. Disgusting.

"Yes, Luxa is something of an expert on rats." She then broke into a devilish grin; her next sentence full of malice. "No matter how many legs they have."

Ooh. That clearly meant Henry. I saw the Queen visibly flinching at her words. Even I wouldn't go that far. I mean, not really. I have killed others' loved ones before, but I had never spat their deaths at them in their faces before. I just moved along and let them deal with it. I felt a deep and growing dislike of Stellovet.

To my credit, Howard seemed embarrassed. Stellovet and the twins were smirking. The little girl, Chimney, was wide-eyed and confused.

I didn't want to defend the Queen, but my urge to rebute was rising, so I just went for it.

I stared at Stellovet for a few moments before casually asking, "So, where are you all from?"

"We live at the Fount. Our father is in charge there," Stellovet said with pride.

 _Ah, good. She has pride, just like all the others. Let's humiliate her a little, shall we?_

 _"Yes, we should," said my counterpart unexpectedly._

 _So we finally agree on something. Didn't expect that._

"And does your father protect you from the rats?"

"There are not many rats in the Fount," she said with greater pride, totally escaping the point of my question. I guessed she didn't want to say yes and embarrass herself.

"They are no doubt afraid of our fighting abilities."

The rats, afraid? Hilarious. Even if the odds were stacked against them, they would never back out. Or at least in my experience.

"They have little reason to come," Howard said, giving his sister a disapproving look. "They would have to swim their way up treacherous river rapids, and we have no crops or Overlanders worth destroying."

I mentally thanked Howard for the information.

"Ah, so have _you_ seen a rat?" I said pointedly at the smug Stellovet.

She blushed; her entire body turning bright pink. "Yes! I have seen a rat! As close as I am to you!"

I was about to question "And was that rat alive?", but Chimney interrupted.

"But, Stellovet," she said, tugging her hand. "That rat was dead."

I resisted the urge to laugh. Leave it to the little girl.

I enjoyed seeing Stellovet's blushing an even deeper shade of pink. "Hush!" she said to Chimney angrily.

"Figures. Come on, Queen, let's continue where we left off."

"If you will excuse us, cousins," said Luxa.

She and I turned and walked away from them. I shot a quick glance at her. The pain was still evident on her face, but she gave me a smile.

"Thank you, Warrior," she said softly. "But I do not want to fight anymore."

"Oh," I said, disappointed. "Then, uh..." I tried to think of a topic to prove that she owed me. "Do a flip. Do the fanciest, wildest one you can think of."

The Queen removed her armor and sword and gently placed it on a side of the arena. She then paused for a moment, focused on a spot halfway across the field, and took off. She launched into a beautiful sequence of flips, ending with a move where she turned two full times in the air completely stretched out and landed on her feet. People in the audience -which was much fewer in numbers- applauded, but she just jogged back to me as if she didn't notice.

"Now you try," she said, a little teasingly.

"No thanks. I'm not really good at this."

She was about to say something when Mareth interrupted by calling everyone to begin sword training, with the exception of me. I had also told the council that I didn't need training. I excused myself, walked to a wall of the arena and leaned on it, watching the Underlanders like a hawk. Howard and Stellovet had joined the Queen's group while the rest joined another. Everyone except Luxa chose a sword of varying types from a large cart that had been wheeled out onto the field.

After everyone had picked their weapons Mareth divided up the rest of the group into pairs to practice drills. Swords danced around, hitting other blades and air.

I focused my eyes onto Howard and observed his fighting style. He had chosen a broadsword, which fitted his muscular build. I analyzed his opponent, who was a teen-aged Underlander with two twin swords. If I remembered correctly, his name was… Demwop, or something like that. The victor was very obvious. My assumption was correct, as Howard overpowered the skinny Underlander in a few moves.

My gaze then shifted to Stellovet. She was facing an Underlander that was twice her size and looked similar to an orc. The bigger Underlander smirked at Stellovet, probably thinking how he could squish her and being way too overconfident. He prepared to thrust his falchion at her, but she moved faster. Before his arm could extend fully, Stellovet rushed towards the giant and had her saber pointed at his neck. When the falchion hit the ground, he then realized the situation he was in and quickly backed off, touching his neck.

She did not let him rest and quickly charged at him. The large one reflexively lifted his sword to his body to block her attack, but she slid past his blade like a snake and poked her blade on his shoulder. No blood was drawn, but Stellovet seemed to be enjoying it, giggling away, almost toying with him.

After a while, they all broke to rest for a few minutes, and then Mareth announced it was time for cannon practice.

That piped my curiosity. I jogged to the Queen.

"What's cannon practice?" I asked.

"These are small cannons for sword practice. To help with speed and accuracy," said the Queen, indicating to the cannons. "You will see."

Three cannons were wheeled onto the field. Off to the side, Mareth set a barrel that was filled with something waxy about the size of a golf ball. "These are bloods balls," the Queen said, holding one out on her palm.

I took it from her and felt liquid sloshing around in it.

 _"Is it real blood?" asked my other self._

"No, only a red liquid to suggest blood. It makes it easier to see if one had made a hit or not," said the Queen.

 _Did she just read my mind?_

It took me a full second to figure out that my mouth had moved without my consent again and had asked that question aloud.

"Oh," I said, feeling stupid.

The three cannons were positioned in an arc and loaded up with five blood balls each. The Underlanders gathered in a circle outside the cannons.

"So, who is brave enough to go first?" Mareth asked with a smile. "Why not you, Howard? I remember you did quite well the last time you visited."

Howard took his position between the cannons. One faced him, one was on his right, the last on his left. Each was about twenty feet away. On Mareth's command, three Underlanders started to crank handles on the sides of the cannons. Blood balls began to rocket out of the barrels straight at Howard. He swung his sword back and forth, trying to cover his front and sides. Seven blood balls burst as his blade made contact with them. But another eight lay unharmed on the ground around him. The whole thing only took about ten seconds.

"Well done, Howard! Well done," said Mareth, and Howard looked pleased with himself.

"Was that a good score?" I asked the Queen.

She shrugged. "It was not bad" was as much praise as she could muster.

One by one, each of the Underlanders took their turn in the line of fire. Most hit only one or two balls. The Queen matched Howard's seven, and Stellovet hit a pathetic five. When all the Underlanders had gone, Mareth called for the cannons to be moved to another part of the field.

"Does the Overlander not take a turn?" Stellovet asked in an innocent voice.

I winced. Why did she have to sound like that? It's so… awful.

"He had told the council he did not need training," said Mareth.

"I suppose it is too daunting," said Stellovet, "even for one so accomplished."

I pursed my lips. Daunting? _Me!?_

"I greatly doubt Ryan is daunted," Mareth said with respect. "Would you like to try it, Ryan? Only as an exercise. Almost no one gets many on their first try."

"Yeah, sure. Why not."

I had agreed for two reasons. One, I actually wanted to try it out on my own. It looked very interesting and certainly would be if I did. Two, I had my own pride. Stellovet's not getting away with that snarky remark. She wants me to be 'so accomplished'? I'll show her.

So, there I stood. Daggers in both hands. Buzzing with both excitement and rage. Ready to begin. Ready to show off.

Mareth's hand slashed down into the air, giving the order to fire.

I heard the Underlanders crank the handles. Time slowed to a crawl as the first wave of blood balls were shot out of the cannons.

Then, it finally happened.

* * *

 **Yeah, I know I have to apologize for the super long delay. So, I'm very sorry. I really am. Exams are 'right around the corner', as my DM would say it, and it's true. This chapter was heavily delayed because of that, and it's my finals. I had to study really hard cause I'm a very lazy person.**

 **Uh, sorry to have your hopes up, but the next chapter (chapter 3) will be on a two month-ish hiatus because of, well, exams. I will be _starting_ to write chapter 3 on 13 October, as that date is the last paper I have to take.**

 **Ugh, I'm so tired. Rate and critic for all I care.**

 **Note: I'm not really satisfied with this one. I feel like this chapter is not as fluid and natural as chapter 1. But I had set up my own deadline, and I had forgotten about it, because of my own stupidity. Thanks, me.**

 **Another note: Please don't be as lazy as me. You won't go far. Trust me. You will start to procrastinate and have anxiety and stress and pressure, and the list goes on and on. Seriously, don't go the same path as I once did. Heh. It's funny, right? I, a nobody who thinks that he has all the time in the world, am telling you all that. Yeah, take advice from a teenager. But seriously, don't.**

 **Whatever. See you guys in the next 1-2 months.**


	3. Chapter 3

**If you've read Just a Photograph, you would know what happened. If you haven't, here's the summary. I accidentally deleted my almost completed chapter 3. Yeah that's pretty much it. I normally write in my phone, because I'm always travelling around (although I hate that).**

 **Anyways, welcome back, writer me! And thank you, you guys and gals! Thank you for being oh-so very patient with me for 2 months ish!**

 **Sorry for the wait (again), by the way. After my exams, my friends had planned a lot (not really) of activities for the celebration of no exams, so I was kinda busy. Went jogging for one day (every available night now), went cycling on the next day, and then badminton on the next day. And then, on the next couple of weeks, I went to work. Also, I was experimenting way too long (I apologize) on some short fanfictions (Some are TUC, [one of which I have just published] some aren't) I thought of when I was going to sleep for quite some time (What do you call them? Sleep thoughts? Bed thoughts?). So, yeah. Pretty busy.**

 **And now, it's time. Time to unleash some words and cause mayhem. Hehe. Welcome to chapter 3! Enjoy!**

* * *

As the blood balls were in range, most of my senses dulled and sharpened at the same time. My eyes were only focused on the incoming blood balls. My ears drowned the surrounding noise. My hand moved by its own. My body spun together with my daggers, almost mechanically. I felt and saw my daggers hitting a lot of blood balls. Then it was over.

My surroundings gradually came back to me. First the arena, then the shocked faces of the Underlanders. I was breathing rather heavily, I noticed. My heart rate rocketed and my head hurt as well, annoying me with a loud buzzing sound, like a bee in my ear.

What happened? Why are they like looking at me like that?

 _"You hit all fifteen blood balls,"_ said a voice in my head. I recognized it as my other self.

I looked down. Fifteen oozing shells laid on the floor. My clothes were mostly red, glistening under the light. Realization slowly dawned on me.

I hit ... all fifteen. With my rager senses. Only with my rager senses.

He was silent for a while as I cursed myself.

 _Are you serious!? Of all the times I've fought! And it controlled me again! Again! I should've known!_

 _"At least that's something good."_

 _How is that 'something good'?!_

 _"We can see Stellovet's reaction."_

That calmed me a little. To wipe her stupid grin off her face and turn it into complete and utter shock sounds satisfying.

I looked back up to find her, but my vision was mostly blocked by the crowd of Underlanders rushing towards me, talking in excited voices and questioning how I did it. I felt them pressing in on me, and that was when I saw their weaknesses.

So many weaknesses. So many things to hit. The dots danced around, constantly begging and pleading me to hit them. It was like a game of darts. Those dots were the bull's-eye, and I was the thrower. The darts was on my hands. I could throw them. I could shoot and score so many points. I could win. I could end this game of -

 _No! Not again. I won't let you control me again. Not now, not ever._

Among the noises and buzzes, a loud and commanding voice called my name. I ignored it and called for Ares, making sure my voice was loud and clear enough.

"Ares!"

I kept my daggers and raised up my hand. A gust of wind flowed behind me, followed by a claw grabbing me by the wrist.

"I know a place," he said, after he had carefully tossed my body onto his neck.

I laid down on my bond, heavily breathing and trying my best to control it. The buzzing softened, but it still found a giant target: Ares. His fragile wings, being punctured by my daggers. His exposed neck and back, being snapped and stabbed. His eyes -

 _No, no, no! Dammit! Happy thoughts, happy thoughts!_

But it wasn't working. All of those were altered, with blood tainted on them. That only meant one thing.

I took out my dagger and carefully rolled up the left arm side of my armor. Under the faint light, the upper side of my arm displayed a number of scars. They were all self inflicted. I aimed the blade at my bicep and scratched it, drawing blood. It barely hurt.

Ares must've heard my grunt or smelled the fresh blood, as his head jerked around and his body was tense.

"Warrior! What are you doing!?"

The blood leaked out and onto Ares's midnight fur, staining the black with an ugly pool of red. The buzzing was much softer. It was working.

"Don't worry about me. Keep on going," I said, slicing another part of my arm, bigger this time. The pain was slowly replacing the buzz. Almost there. Just a few more cuts.

Ares hesitated, unsure, but decided to comply.

"You will want light," he said, angling in toward a row of torches on the tunnel wall. I reached out and snagged one. I could see my arm now, flowing out without stopping. I covered it with my free hand, trying to stop the leak. The buzz was gone, for now.

I looked ahead, and saw where we were going. A small underground lake flanked by dozens of caves. Ares dove into one with a narrow entrance. Inside, the cave opened up into a wide space. Large crystal formations grew down from the high ceiling. I slid off his back and stood on the clear stone floor.

"Woah. Is this your secret hideout or something?" I asked, scanning my surroundings and seeing food supplies, blankets, and spare torches.

"Yes, my hideout," said Ares. "At one time it was also Henry's. We came here when we did not want to be around others. Now it is less my hideout than my home."

"Oh. Sorry for asking."

"It is fine."

Silence ensued. I wanted to ask him about Henry, but had to think of a way to phrase it right to not insult him. Once I thought that the question was alright, I spoke.

"Why did Henry bond with you?"

"Henry chose me because I was wild and known to disobey many of the rules of my land. I chose Henry because I was flattered and he was royal and under his protection I knew I could be absolved of many things," said Ares, smiling solemnly.

I nodded, understanding and secretly laughing. Who knew that Ares was a rebel? That might fit us. A bond of rebels. Of course, I was more than that, but he doesn't need to know that.

"It was not all bad. We flew well together and shared many many of the same tastes. In most ways, we were suited to each other. In one, we were not."

Ares then eyed at my left arm. I knew that he was going to ask why. But thankfully, right when he had opened his mouth, there was a rustling of wings at the cave entrance, and Aurora flew in with the Queen.

"We knew you would be here!" she cried. She bounced off Aurora and almost danced across the floor, clapping her hands together. I shifted my position, hiding my left arm with my body. I didn't want to hear questions I didn't want to answer.

"Was it not wonderful? Did you see it? Did you see the look on Stellovet's face?"

"As if she had a mouth full of vinegar," Aurora purred, apparently also in a good mood.

I cracked a smile. I could imagine that on her stupid little face.

"She thought to make you look like a fool, and instead you hit the total! Almost no one has ever done this! It was brilliant!"

So it was a very rare thing. Though, I would like to hear about the ones who did hit the total. Maybe Solovet or Mareth? I slipped in a mental note to remind myself to ask them about it. I didn't want to spoil the Queen's excitement, so I just rolled along with it.

"Really?"

"Of course! And I have not seen Stellovet so put out since the picnic!" said the Queen, giggling at the memory.

The bats made a "huh, huh, huh" sound. It took me a moment to realize that they were laughing.

I cocked my head, interested and amused. "What happened?"

"You should have seen it. Vikus forced us all to go this picnic with my Fount cousins because he thought it would help us get along better. And Stellovet kept pretending she heard rats, and making Nerissa terrified. So Henry trick her into eating moth cocoons. She spent the whole afternoon picking silk out of her teeth and saying, 'Ah will noth forgeth thiseth!'" she said, doing a pretty great imitation of someone with their mouth full of silk.

"Henry could trick her into anything." Ares said, followed by a few more "huh, huh, huhs." And then suddenly his laughter faded. "He could trick all of us."

Their happiness drowned and was replaced by sorrow. That traitor had treated them far worse than he had treated Stellovet.

"Whatever Henry was wrong about, he was right about my Fount cousins," she said grimly. "Especially Stellovet. She dreams of Nerissa and me dying because she thinks Vikus would be made king then and she, as his granddaughter would be a princess."

Another quiet moment. I knew that little vixen was pretty bad, but not that bad. I found another reason to dislike her.

Then, Aurora piped up on a more positive note. "The Warrior's feat will be good for you, Ares."

"We shall see," said Ares.

"It will. It will do you no harm to have a bond who can hit the total," said Luxa with conviction. "No one will dare ignore you now."

I looked away from them. They would definitely not ignore him if they heard that he was bonded to a once-psychopathic killer. I 'saw' Ares glancing at the ground and looking sorrow, but with a glimmer of hope.

Suddenly, Ares's and Aurora's heads shot up.

"What is it?" I asked, immediately alert.

There was a high and wailing pitched horn blowing in the distance. Luxa listened a second and then leaped onto Aurora's back. They were gone in a flash.

"It is a warning, Warrior. You had best mount up," said Ares.

I eyed at the torch I brought. Should I take it with me? I had echolocation, but I didn't want others to find out about it. I didn't want to make myself more superior than I already am. People might ask troublesome questions. But I could use the darkness to conceal my freshly made scars, which would avoid another set of questions. There were so many contradictons. I couldn't decide. What should -

"Warrior!" hissed Ares, clearly ready to take off. "We must hurry!"

 _Screw it._

I grabbed the torch and threw my leg over his neck. We were immediately airborne.

"What kind of warning is it?" I asked as we swerved out over the lake.

Ares spoke calmly, but his muscles were tense. "It means that rats have entered Regalia."

Rats? Here? Now? Sweet.

"Faster, Ares!" I blurted out, sounding too excited.

Ares gave me a confused look, but didn't push it. "Yes, Warrior, I will hurry," he said. His powerful wings were beating up and down in a blur.

As we sped into the arena, a guard shouted at us and waved at the massive stone doors that separated the playing field from the city. "There are just the two! There, by the doors! Stay back!"

Ares put on the brakes, but we were close enough to get a good view of the battle on the ground. In front of the doors were two rats fighting for their lives against a dozen humans on bats. The smaller rat seemed to leap amazingly high off the ground. It was not getting a lot of action, though, because a much larger rat was shielding it from the brunt of the attack.

I could recognize that rat anywhere.

"It's Ripred! Stop them!"

Ares was already diving. He swooped in from the side, knocking two riders off the front line. He did a figure eight that disoriented a few more, and did a strange hovering motion in the air over Ripred's head, probably signalling them to stop.

They pulled back to avoid hitting him, but began to shout angrily at Ares to move.

"Stop! It's Ripred!" I hollered over the din. They heard the name Ripred, and the Underlanders pulled back in silence.

The big rat stopped spinning and fell almost lazily on its back. His scarred face broke into a big, fanged grin, and he started to laugh. "Oh, look at them, Overlander. Are they not priceless?"

I wanted to agree with him and laugh, as some of the Underlanders' mouths were literally hanging open, but I stifled the impulse. I didn't want to ruin my reputation.

"No," I said, but half of my lips curved up, forcing me to do a half smile. Fortunately, that smile was not seen by the Underlanders. Unfortunately, it was seen by Ripred.

He guffawed even louder. "You know it is! You know you want to laugh, too!"

"Just shut up, Ripred," I said, finally getting that smile off my face. He completely ignored me and chortled in glee.

I scanned around. Not one important figure I recognized was here. Where the hell was Solovet? Shouldn't the general be here?

"Can someone get Solovet?" Nobody answered or flew off. They just sat on their bats, staring hard at the two rats and ready to attack.

Damn. Looks like my title isn't high enough.

I faced to the smaller rat, who hunkered back against the doors, wide-eyed and panting. Was it asthmatic?

 _"Can I try talking to it?" asked my other self._

 _Fine. But don't do anything stupid._

As _he_ took control, _he_ extended _his_ hand to it and said, "Hey, sorry about this. I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you."

The rat pulled its gums back from its teeth and hissed viciously at _him_ , causing both Ares and _him_ to flinch.

To make it worse, Ripred was beating his tail on the ground in a spasm of hilarity. "Oh! Oh! You needn't try to sweettalk her," he gasped. "Twitchtip hates everybody!"

I instantly got back in control.

 _What the hell do you think you're doing!?_

 _"What? I'm trying to be friendly!"_

 _To a rat!?_

 _"Yeah! You've been friendly towards Ripred. Why not her?"_

 _Okay, that's it. You're banned._

 _"But I thought we agreed on - "_

 _That agreement was over since you did that. Now stay in there and think of what you've done._

He was silent as I ranted in my head.

 _God dammit. You've embarrassed me in front of freaking Ripred. I had thought that we were going to fight a rat army, but I get this._

In the middle of my complaints, someone interrupted.

"Ground formation," commanded a voice, and I turned to see Solovet on a bat coming in for a landing. The Underlanders brought their bats down in a tight diamond pattern. Ignoring Ripred, Solovet walked through the soldiers and bats, sending the wounded off to get medical attention. Then she dismissed the rest.

By this time, Ripred had pulled himself together and was stretched out comfortably on his side. Twitchtip still had her nose buried in the hole, in the moss. She was breathing through her mouth in short, distressed puffs.

Solovet crossed to the rats, signaling Ares to land as she went. She surveyed the invaders stonily. "I have just sent eleven of my ranks to the hospital."

"Oh, I barely scratched them. I was just giving them a little live rat practice, and I think we both have to admit they need it," Ripred said with a significant nod.

"You were supposed to meet an escort guard at Queenshead tomorrow," said Solovet.

"Was that tomorrow? I felt certain it was today, And we waited and waited and poor Twitchtip was so eager for her first glimpse of Regalia and I didn't have the heart to disappoint her another minute. Right, Twitchtip?" Ripred said, poking the rat with the tip of his tail.

Twitchtip yanked her nose from the moss, snapped at Ripred's tail, which he whipped out of reach just in time, and shoved her nose back in the earth.

"Isn't she a charmer? Isn't she just irresistible?" said Ripred. "And I've had her all to myself on a journey from the Dead Land. Imagine the fun."

Twitchtip glowered at him but didn't attack again.

"And for what reason do we have the pleasure of her company?" Solovet asked, eyeing Twitchtip.

"Why, I have brought her as a gift. For you, for your people, and for our Warrior here. Yes, especially for Ryan ," said Ripred.

I got caught off guard. Ripred giving me a present? That's unlike him. "For me?"

"Well, not literally. It's not as if I own her. But I made a bargain with her. She's agreed to help you find the Bane, and I've agreed to let her live with my merry little band of rats in the Dead Land if she succeeds," said Ripred. "You see, she was driven out of the gnawers' land years ago and had been surviving on her own."

Bane. That word was mentioned in the council when I was registering as a soldier in Regalia. What was it? The way Ripred said it, it sounded as though 'Bane' was a person, or whatever species there are in the Underland.

"Because she is mad," Solovet said, as if that were obvious.

"Oh, no, not mad. Twitchtip is gifted. Show the people what you can do, Twitchtip," said Ripred. Twitchtip just glared at him. "Go on, show them, or it's back to living with me, myself, and I for you."

Twitchtip reluctantly lifted up her head and brushed the moss and dirt from her nose. She tilted back her chin, took a deep sniff, and grimaced. "The girl's sister is located on the third level of a large circular structure in a room with eight other pups and two grown ones. She's just eaten cake and milk. She's cutting a new tooth. Her catch cloth is wet, and her shirt is pink," Twitchtip spat out. Then she crammed her nose back in the moss.

There was a moment of silence for us to take in all of that information.

Then, "Wait, what? What sister?"

* * *

 **Surprise! It's a cliffhanger! I'm so evil. Please review and critic as hard as you can!**

 **This chapter might not be as good as Just a Photograph, probably because there's the lack of either emotions or action. The more that I think about it, the more annoying it gets. No offense to Suzanne Collins.**

 **Question : Do any of you guys ever hear a random soft / loud buzzing sound in your ear that is not from an insect? I'm curious.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Holy crap, I haven't been updating for almost two months! And it's already 2017!**

 **Sorry again for the wait, again. I was stuck between some dialogue and didn't know how to continue it or what to add in as they were unrealistic and weird, so I had to delay it a little longer. Writer's block. Also, I wanted to have fun as long as I could during my holidays, so there's that too. Sorry.**

* * *

Solovet showed me the back of her hand, ordering me to wait. I was about to lash out but luckily stopped myself. Even though I had the reputation of the Warrior, I was still a soldier; I had to listen to the general. So, I shut my mouth in irritation and tried to figure out who the 'sister' was as she spoke.

Her eyebrows shot up. "She is a scent seer?"

"Yes, her sense of smell is so unnaturally heightened she can even detect color. She is one in a million. An anomaly. A fluke. A pariah because her own species finds her gift so disquieting. But very, very useful, I think, to you, my dear Solovet," said Ripred.

"She is not a bad fighter, either. If she has survived alone in the Dead Land." For the first time, Solovet smiled. "Can you stay to dine, Ripred?"

"I can be persuaded," said Ripred. "Have them make the thing with shrimp, won't you? And no skimping on the cream."

"No skimping on the cream," agreed Solovet.

"And give Twitchtip plenty of food, but make it bland. Handle it as little as possible. Your scent is repulsive to her," said Ripred.

Solovet gave orders for Twitchtip to be taken to a remote cave outside Regalia, where the city's smells wouldn't be so torturous to her. But before she left, our eyes met for a split second.

She finally turned to me. "What did you want to ask, Ryan?"

"That rat mentioned 'the girl's sister'. It's Lizzie's sister, isn't it?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"Why are they even here? I thought they were done."

She cocked her head in confusion. "Did Vikus not tell you?"

I sighed. "No, he didn't." I put the pieces together. "There's another prophecy, isn't there? Why wasn't I informed about this?"

"Did you not want to only fight my soldiers?"

I peeled my eyes off of her in embarrassment. It was true. I did say that.

Luckily, she didn't push it and changed the topic. "I hear you made quite a stir at the arena today."

I merely nodded.

"He hit the total," Solovet said to Ripred.

"Did he?" Ripred said, surveying me with interest. Suddenly, his tail came up out of nowhere and sliced at me. There was a buzz, then my hand shot up and swiftly grabbed his tail, clenching it.

"Well, you can't teach that," Ripred said, slipping his tail out of my grasp as I silently cursed myself for not controlling my rager once again.

"You reek of blood," he said as he passed me.

 _Did he know?_

I was told by Solovet to get Lizzie and Boots to the diner. Ripred then went off to the palace with her through some secret passage to avoid causing a panic in the city, while Ares flew me back into the armory. Even after staying in the Underland for who knows how long, I still didn't know much about the city. It was always eat, fight, sleep, repeat. Occasionally, though, when there weren't that many soldiers to fight, I would stroll around.

After removing my armor, we went to the High Hall, where the guards greeted me. Only me.

 _I could fix that._

I gave them a cold, hard stare and pointed to my bond. There was a moment of discomfort, then they greeted Ares as well. I smiled triumphantly, satisfied.

Once out of range of the guards, Ares blurted out. "You did not have to do that."

"I had to. I've seen the faces of others when your back is turned. They hate you, Ares."

"I have always been hated," he said, almost sarcastically.

"I know." I laid down and stroked his fur. "But we can change that, can't we? I can make them respect you. You will never be hated anymore."

That wasn't the complete truth. There would always be underlying anger whenever you try to take away the hatred of others. It had been proven time and time again in human history. But still, I had to try. Forcefully, if I have to.

He became quiet for a while. "Thank you, Ryan. But ... I do not want to trouble you with my problems. I will solve them by my own."

I nodded, understanding but a little saddened that he had rejected my offer. "But if you ever needed help, feel free to ask me."

"I will."

I quietly exhaled a sigh of relief. Good. That means that it wasn't completely rejected yet. There is still that possibility.

He had saved my life. I will repay that debt with my own. That was the rule I made for myself.

Once in the bath, I scrubbed and scrubbed at the fake blood, but it still left a stain on my skin. I finally gave up, hoping it would wear off before I went for another journey for the new prophecy. I didn't want to show any weaknesses.

When I was done and got out of the bathroom, the first thing I noticed was the lack of people. There was no sight of the usual guards, only a lone Underlander leaning against the wall; her eyes closed.

I instinctively went to grab my daggers. But before I did, I heard a chuckle. Faint, but noticeable. Using echolocation, I 'saw' group of female Underlanders hiding behind a pillar, whispering away.

So that's what's going on. I sighed in relief and relaxed. I seriously thought that it was an assassination attempt.

I stared at the sleeping Underlander. I recognized her. She was the servant who brought me food in my room. What was her name again?

She was breathing mildly, proving that she wasn't faking her sleep. She looked so vulnerable, so innocent, so ... attractive?

I immediately stopped that train of thought. No, no, no. Control your damn hormones. You are _the_ Warrior, not a playboy. You do not do romance.

It wasn't the first time I saw a helpless person, yet why did I feel that way? Was it the frustration?

I forced myself to think of other things about her. Was she another admirer, or did her friends force her to approach me? I really hoped that it was the latter. I had way too many of them (some were, admittedly, beautiful but I managed to control my urges) coming up to me and asking me out. They were all wasting my time. I didn't say that to them, obviously.

I sighed again. I didn't want to expose the group, as that would waste time, and I needed to know answers to my questions. Might as well play their game.

"Hey," I said, making sure I was tapping her shoulder and not her neck.

She instantly awoke and quickly tidied her hair and clothes.

"O-Oh! Greetings, Warrior!" She stood up and bowed deeply. "I am she called Ella. How may I be of service?" While she was speaking, she was fidgeting and blushing, probably embarrassed and nervous.

I spared her the trouble by not asking her what she was doing here and went straight to the point. "Do you know where Lizzie and Boots are?"

It took her a while to tell me. "Lizzie is in the prophecy room, and Boots is in the nursery."

I should've known. "Where's the prophecy room, then?"

She gave me the directions while I nodded, memorizing the way. According to her, the prophecy room was nearer, so I had to get Lizzie then Boots, which was originally my intention. When she was done, she clearly had something else to say but was hesitant. I patiently waited for her to speak.

"Warrior?"

"Yes?"

She shifted her feet. "Will... will you accept my gift?" She slowly took out something from her pocket and presented it to me. It was a thick iron bracelet, with a loose design of my usual daggers and her name carved into it. I kindly accepted it and put it on. It fitted me quite nicely and would be a great asset for defensive purposes. The Queen had it, so why couldn't I?

"Thank you, but I have to go now. The prophecy room is this way, right?" I purposely asked, pointing to the direction she gave me.

"Yes!" she said with a beaming smile.

I turned around and left her, and her friends soon after, who were firing her with questions excitedly.

When I was reaching the room, the door was left ajar with light emitting from it, indicating that someone was in there. I went in, and there Lizzie was, reading scrolls in fascination and eagerness. Typical of her.

She hadn't noticed that I was here. Using that advantage, I sneaked behind her and swiftly snatched the scroll she was focusing on.

"Hey!"

I read it aloud. "On soft feet, by none detected. Dealing death, by most rejected. Killed by claw, since resurrected. Marked by X, two lines connected. Finally, they intersected. Two lines met, one unexpected." I looked at her. "Sounds like someone completely opposite to this 'peacemaker'."

She smirked. "Sounds like _you_."

I tossed the scroll back to her. "Nah, I won't die by a rat. Besides, I'm not peacekeeper material." She was still smiling, looking almost sorry for me. "What are you so happy about?"

"Oh, nothing. You just remind me of someone." She went back to her scrolls. We both knew who she meant.

I folded my arms. "I'm supposed to get you to the dining room, but I'll disobey orders for a while." I paused. "So, what's the situation up there?"

Her smile vanished. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said, using reverse psychology. I actually was curious about it.

She shook her head. "It's okay. You'd want to know anyway." Taking a deep breath, she spilled her story.

Apparently, after her ... losses, her neighbor, started to be the motherly figure for both Lizzie and Boots, frequently staying with them. The neighbor was named Mrs. Cormaci. She was a widow without children but was pretty good at taking care of them. I guessed that she had babysat before. The next day after Lizzie and Boots went to the Underland and came back with their dad, she was surprisingly serene and calmly asked them what had happened. Boots was sleeping, and her father was too sick to speak at that time, so Lizzie had to tell her everything. Mrs. Cormaci was in disbelief for a while before Lizzie gave her a tour of the laundry room gateway. Since then, she had been very interested in it and wanted to visit, but couldn't as she had to take care of both her dad and grandma.

"So why are you here then? Give me the full thing." I asked.

She drank a few gulps of water from a bottle before continuing. "The roaches tried to take Boots away. They said they had to protect the princess or something. When I called Mrs. Cormaci to tell her about it, they had already left. She told me to follow them quickly. Dad insisted on going, but Mrs. Cormaci convinced him that I would be fine."

"A roach was waiting for me inside. We rode to the palace while I asked it questions. To summarize, there was a prophecy about Boots' life in danger, called the Prophecy of Bane."

Bane... So _that's_ what they were talking about.

Lizzie slotted the torch she had been using into a particular holder, and the light illuminated carved writing. Beside it was the Prophecy of Gray. So this must be it: the Prophecy of Bane.

If Under fell, if Over leaped,

If life was death, if death life reaped.

Something rises from the gloom

To make the Underland a tomb.

Hear it scratching down below,

Rat of long-forgotten snow,

Evil cloaked in coat of white

Will the warrior drain your light?

What could turn the warrior weak?

What do burning gnawers seek?

Just a barely speaking pup

Who holds the land of Under up.

Die the baby, die his heart,

Die his most essential part.

Die the peace that rules the hour.

Gnawers have their key to power.

"So it's this white rat I have to kill, and this 'pup' is supposed to kill me. That's it!?"

"Well, essentially, yes. But the pup can't be Boots. Look at this: 'Just a barely speaking pup, who holds the land of Under up.' Boots can't speak much, but she's not someone who would 'hold the land of Under up'. I tried telling Vikus, but he dismissed it, saying that 'the land of Under' can mean the roaches' land since they are the species with the most amount of land."

"Did Vikus tell you anything else about the white rat?" I asked, only caring about this supposed threat that I had to 'drain it's light' from.

"He said that it was pretty big, almost twice as big as Ripred, and that it was cunning and powerful."

I imagined it with Lizzie's details along with the ones I made up. A gigantic creature with massive claws, smiling menacingly and looking down at me. I smiled too, shivering in excitement. It would be one hell of an opponent.

"Listen, Lizzie. Let's just tell him that we believe him, and that Boots is this so called pup."

"Why would you lie to him?"

"It's not a lie. It's a satisfying answer, to him, at least. I can go on this journey and see the rat for myself. Who knows, I might even bring its corpse back."

She put her hands on her hips. "Is everything all about you?"

"Yes, actually. Everything is all about me. I'm the Warrior here. Didn't you know that?"

"Then I'm coming with you."

"Why? You're not even mentioned in the prophecy."

She smirked. "Not yet."

I eyed at her suspiciously. "What do you know?"

Her smirk grew wider, turning it to a full grown cocky grin. "I know a lot of things that you don't here. And if you want to know, I have to come with you."

I had a staring competition with her for a while before breaking it off with a sigh. "Fine. Whatever. Just don't get in my way. Let's just go already." I said, waving her over.

She giggled, almost as if she had planned it, and walked towards the nursery with me.

While doing so, I asked her a question that had been bugging me for quite some time. "How long have you been staying in the Underland?"

She shrugged. "One or two days."

No wonder she could collect that much information.

Once in the nursery, the first person we saw in it was Dulcet, the one who took care of Boots.

"How's she been doing?" asked Lizzie.

"Oh, Boots has had a very good day. I think it has been somewhat trying for Temp, though," said Dulcet, nodding toward a corner.

A crawler was being decked out in dress-up clothes by a group of little kids. Each of its insect legs wore a different kind of shoe. Its head poked out of a long purple gown that bunched up around his neck. Pink ribbons festooned its drooping antennas. Boots plunked a fuzzy hat on its head, and the kids jumped up and down, squealing in delight.

"Temp have hat! Temp have hat!" she beamed at Lizzie as she came up to get her.

"Ohhh," Temp said mournfully. "Ohhh."

"He sure does," Lizzie said, trying to stifle her laughter. "But now it's time for dinner, Boots." She began to untangle the poor insect from the clothes. It had probably going on for hours.

Unlike in the nursery, dinner had a grim aura surrounding it. It was a reunion for those who had gone to the Prophecy of Gray. Or, at least, those who had survived the journey and came back. Those who had died were the spinners Gox and Treflex; the crawler Tick; the Underlander Henry, and Gorger and his rats. Of the eight that lived, only Lizzie's father was missing. We were all here, with Vikus and Solovet presiding over the table.

Everyone ate in silence. Well, except Boots. She ran around the room, playing catch with Temp. Lizzie tried to stop her, but ultimately gave up.

Ripred started the conversation. "Really, Vikus, did you think we were going to swap war stories?"

"I thought it might be healing," said Vikus. "That it might help some accept their losses."

At that, the Queen sprang up, kicking her chair back onto the floor behind her. She and Aurora were gone in seconds.

Ares pleaded me with his eyes. I nodded to him. He flew out of the room, trying to chase the duo.

"And it's working beautifully," said Ripred. "Ah, well, more for me." He hooked his paw around a huge serving dish of shrimp in cream sauce and pulled it in front of him. He stuck his entire face in the dish and sucked it down. This distracted Boots, who was so fascinated by his eating methods that she dipped her own face in her plate to imitate him.

"Mm," Ripred said dreamily as he pulled his dripping muzzle from the dish.

"Mm," Boots echoed. She giggled, dropped her face back in her dish, and slurped.

Ripred's long tongue swept around his jaws, cleaning off the cream. "Nothing like that in the Dead Land. Nothing much of anything these days, of course. Since the humans have cut the gnawers from their main fishing grounds."

"Perhaps a little hunger will help them reflect on their poor lack of judgment in attacking us," Solovet said, helping herself to a large serving of mushrooms.

I noticed Lizzie frowning at Solovet's response.

"Surely the gnawers are not really starving?" asked Vikus.

"Aren't they?" said Ripred. "You have driven them back to the border of the ants. The rivers left open to them are dangerous to fish and are downstream from the crawlers, so the catch is small. What, in your mind, are they feeding on?"

The silence came back, bringing back that vibe. I, however, was interested in the ants. I decided to ask about them later, as now wasn't a good time.

"It's not helping the grand plan. I have enough to overcome as it is. And you reap what you sow, Solovet," said Ripred.

"Is this what you came to tell me, Ripred?" Solovet said, unmoved.

"No. You know what you're doing. Or at least you flatter yourself you do. I came to deliver Twitchtip and to teach Ryan another trick he can't learn from you."

My back straightened at the mention of my name. What was he going to teach?

Ripred stuck an entire loaf of bread in his mouth and pushed back from the table. "Ready, boy?"

"For what?" I asked, trying to contain my anticipation. Ripred teaching me? Whatever he's going to give me would be incredibly useful. I just know it.

"Your first lesson," Ripred said with a gulp. "It starts now."

* * *

 **Boom. Cliffhanger. Yes, I love cliffhangers. It gives the readers the excitement and anticipation (and maybe disappointment) of what would come next.**

 **I might be doing a prequel on Killer. I have a few ideas for it, but they aren't complete, yet. Hope I still can remember how it goes in the future. Fingers crossed.**

 **While writing Lizzie's story, I was inspired (by myself, lol) to write a short about how Lizzie coped without her family members, both before and after Ryan killed her mom and brother. Of course, it would be right before she and Boots fell. I would most likely write that after I've finished the Killer series (probably excluding the prequel) and Just a Photograph.**

 **Do you have an active imagination? (Please read it slowly for maximum effect.) If so, then imagine your lip (zoom in on it). Imagine a long piece of metal is on your lip (top or bottom doesn't matter). Imagine that cold, hard steel touching your lip. Now, zoom out a little, and you can see another tiny bit of metal pointing diagonally upwards. Suddenly, the two metals join together in between your lip, snipping it away. You can feel your lip missing. You can feel it bleeding freely, dripping on your feet. You try to lick it, but you can only feel that intense pain and stinging heat. So, how does your lip feel? Please tell me. I really wanna know.**

 **Question: Do you guys plan first before you write, or write as you plan along? Neither or both? For me, it's both, but more on the plan and write part. It's a bad writing move, I know, but I have a hard time memorizing stuff in my head and I'm lazy to write them all down.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Had actually wanted the chapter to be published yesterday, but I thought I did yesterday, and then a crisis occurred.**

 **Here we go. The start of chapter 5. Leggo.**

 **Sorry about the long waiting time. I was experimenting with a genre that I had once written before and was trying it out in this series. You could probably guess what that genre is as you read.**

 **This has action! Hooray!**

 **Fun fact: The flashback scenes to the past were all inspired by Gintama. You'll only get fragments of it. Thank you, anime.**

* * *

I followed Ripred to a circular cave somewhere deep beneath Regalia, which was pitch black. I didn't bring my belt along as Ripred had instructed me to, so I decided to pass it to Miravet to work on her replica. I was weaponless. I felt naked without my daggers.

"So, what are we doing here? Please don't tell me it's echolocation." I asked Ripred, using my voice to echolocate, only to 'see' him slouching against the wall.

He slid down and lounged along the wall of the cave. "No. To control your... fighting urges."

"What?"

"Don't be so confused, boy. I know that you fight in a certain way. A way like me. A rager."

"You call it that too?"

He waved his paw lazily, dismissing it. "It doesn't matter what it's called. It only matters on how you use it. Say, for instance, if you are unarmed in the dark with another rager."

I tensed up. I 'saw' his tail coming and lifted my hand to block, but a hind foot incoming meant that it was a feint. I tried to trip him with mine, but it changed trajectory at the very last second and slammed my foot down, hard. I howled in pain, and Ripred used my whining to his advantage, using his paw to shove me down.

Once my back hit the ground, the familiar buzz resonated within my head. I felt much stronger, faster, and more aware. I was mostly in control. Quickly picking myself back up, I aimed my left fist at his snout, which was intended to be a feint before hooking a right. He swiftly dodged them both and swiped his claws at me. I used my new metal bracelet and my free hand to block them and push them away from me respectively. Unfortunately, Ripred was powerful enough to leave deep scratches on it. To give myself more space, I kicked him away, in which he blocked with both paws.

Excitement was pumping through my veins. Energy crackled within me. The buzz was as loud as it got. I hadn't felt like this since the fight with Gregor. Was this a rager-on-rager thing?

"Good. You're in control," he said, his voice echoing. He took a sniff. "I can smell your excitement." He made it sound like it was a bad thing.

"Yeah?" I said, smiling widely. "This feels great! Reminds me so much of my fight with another rager."

This interested Ripred. "Oh? And who would that be?"

"Gregor." I shrugged. "Why would you-"

Before I could finish, Ripred charged headfirst with a flurry of claws. I backtracked and had a hard time fending them off. My vision splintered and became hazy; a sign that I was losing control. My hands started to move in a blur and was bleeding badly. I was pushing him back. I was winning! But...

"Focus, Overlander!" He then slapped me with his paw, forcing me back to my senses. But the strength of the slap and my shock combined made my body fall to the floor with a loud thud. The buzzing stopped, and it took me a moment to register what had happened. Realization came before the pain. My breathing was rapid, almost gasping for air.

I 'saw' Ripred staring at me for a few seconds in slow, deep breaths. "Good enough. Now let's go get some sleep. We're both done in."

"What!?" I exclaimed in between breaths. I stood back up, which took quite a lot of effort. "I'm not done yet! I can still fight!"

Suddenly, his nose was inches from my own. His eyes were narrowed in anger.

"Listen, Warrior," he hissed. "When I say we're done, we are done. Do you honestly think you still can fight me?"

To answer his question, I threw a punch at him with my lesser injured hand. He grabbed and squeezed it tight, cracking my bones. I grunted in agony. I tried kicking his paw to stop it, but his tail wrapped around my ankle and slowly twisted it. I now stood on my left leg.

"Are you done?" he asked fiercely.

With sheer willpower, I mustered all of my strength to drag my right foot back to reel him in and headbutt his snout. I missed my target, but I still did hit his scarred eye. My sadism and pride were quenched.

He pulled back and growled at me; his paw covering the eye. It looked like he was going to attack, so I took on a defensive stance, but sadly, with only one leg.

We glared at each other for what felt like an eternity before he turned his back on me and signaled him to follow him. I limped towards him, feeling quite satisfied yet not so at the same time as we headed back to the city.

He told me where the hospital was, which was the opposite direction to where the prophecy room was, and went to who-knows-where after I had understood the directions.

While walking, well, more like limping and dragging my one leg, I noticed that the door of the prophecy room was cracked open. I had, at first, thought that Lizzie was inside, but that speculation was cleared as soon as I hobbled inside.

"Lizzie? Are you in the prophecy room again?" I asked as I stepped into the faint light the torch held, which was next to the Prophecy of Bane. No one seemed to be reading it.

Before I could use echolocation to track whoever was in there, someone stepped out of the shadows. I turned my head, only to look at...

A ghost. It was emaciated, with eyes shining huge and hollow in the torchlight, underscored with dark purple crescents. Its hair which fell down far below its waist was loose and tangled. Even though it was wrapped in a thick cloak, it acted as if it was freezing. It looked strikingly familiar. I searched through my memories for an answer, which was helping but also triggering an unwanted one.

Unfortunately, the latter emerged out victorious and slithered into my core memory, no matter how much I tried it not to be. There was another female, but this one was in her late-teens and bed-ridden. She was breathing heavily, as if she was on the brink of death, which she actually was. Another memory popped up. I remember that she was the daughter of a rich bastard, and that he himself hired me to "take care of her", as he said. I remembered he was paying a fortune for her... beauty sleep.

I remembered her face. It wasn't the horror filled one that I had anticipated, but a serene expression. She was staring at me. My memory played our conversation.

"Do you want to know who sent me?" I had asked her, standing right in front of her and twirling my dagger so that she could see it.

"It's fine," she had said in a soft voice, almost whispering. "I know my father did."

"Aren't you scared?"

Her head shook slightly. "No, not really."

"Hm. A shame. Any last words?"

"Make it worthwhile." And then she closed her eyes and smiled. Her muscles relaxed. She was ready for her death.

Then I plunged the blade into her throat. The memory ended there and then.

"Overlander." A feminine voice said.

I blinked and looked at her face once more. I recognized that voice. It was Nerrisa, Luxa's frail cousin. The second Sandwich. The last time I'd seen her, she had given me a copy of the Prophecy of Gray.

I dipped my head in shame. I must've weirded her out. How long had I been standing there for?

"Uh, sorry. I thought Lizzie was here. Guess not. I'll take my leave." I started to back out of the room.

"No, wait, Overlander," Nerissa said in a tremulous voice. "Stay a moment."

A strange request. Didn't she see my wounds? "Okay?" I said, desperately trying to find a topic for me to get out of here. Sadly, the one that came out of my mouth was definitely the worst subject. "So, what did you think about Henry?" My stomach flipped after I had blurted those words out.

Surprisingly, she didn't take offense to that. "I think it is best he is dead," said Nerissa.

"You do?" I quizzically asked, taken aback by her bluntness.

"When one considers the alternatives," she said. "Had he been successful in banding with the gnawers, we would all be dead. You, Lizzie, her father. All of my people. Henry, too. But, of course, I miss him greatly."

She was braver than I thought. "Do you know why he did it?"

"He was afraid. I know that. And I think somehow in his mind he felt that joining with the rats would give him the security he longed for."

Which was completely illogical to me. I mean, drawing comfort from those who killed his parents? I'd seen others do it before, first hand, and it always ended disastrously.

"Do you think he was wrong?" I ventured to ask.

"Was he?" Nerissa answered, and she smiled creepily.

I shrugged. "Didn't you just say... If he'd got his way, we'd all be dead?" I highly doubt it, but I asked anyway.

"Oh, yes. His methods were undoubtedly flawed." Nerissa lost interest in our conversation and wandered over to "The Prophecy of Bane." Her bony fingers reached up and ran slowly across the letters as if she were reading Braille. "And what of you, Warrior? Are you ready to face the Bane?"

"The... prophecy?"

"Vikus did not tell you?" I bet that I was going to hear that a lot. He had been keeping way too much information from me. "We call the white rat 'the Bane,'" said Nerissa. "Do you know what that means?"

The Bane, huh? What a perfect name for a soon-to-be nemesis.

"Obviously. Lizzie said that I was a threat to it, or something like that. I'm supposed to help you guys and kill it."

Nerissa must've misheard me, as she looked bewildered. "Help us? Oh, no, Ryan, you must drain its light. See, it is written here." Her fingers rapidly passed over a line on the wall.

WILL THE WARRIOR DRAIN YOUR LIGHT?

I signaled her to stop. "No, I mean, as in... I'm helping you guys by killing it." I tried to make it as clear as possible to fix up the misunderstanding.

She didn't seem to hear me. "The Bane must die by your hand alone."

"Yeah, I know that." She was very weird.

Feeling as though it was the end of the conversation, I quickly got out of the room and went straight to the infirmary, where I saw Howard talking to an Underlander doctor. There was only the two of them. The doctor looked dead-beat tired and eyed at me in relief as if he wanted to find an excuse to end his talk with Howard.

"Ah, Warrior!" He bowed. Howard then noticed me and reluctantly did as well. The doctor turned to him. "Use the skills you have learned and mend the Warrior's wounds. I will be leaving." And with that, he left us.

Howard stared at me awkwardly. I didn't have time for pleasantries and just hopped onto the bed, showing him my injuries. Probably by the sight of blood, he snapped back to reality and hurriedly grabbed the required tools for my treatment.

"So," I started, while he was stitching my wounds with thin silk strings after he had dabbed a clear liquid on them. Probably some sort of anesthetic. "Why are you here?"

He broke into a grin. "I wanted to do more than aid others in water."

So he was sort of a lifeguard. "What made you think that?"

His expression changed, this time more fondly. "Hero and Kent had persuaded me to after I had only read a book about it once." He seemed to enjoy the conversation.

He moved on to my leg. I had one last question. "What do you think of Stellovet?"

His face darkened. "She is... I do not think much of her," he admitted and laughed it off. "She is arrogant, stubborn and jealous of the royal family. But Hero, Kent, and Chimney do not see that in her. I still love her as a family, but... She can be too much for her own good."

He sewed up the final part of my wounds and bit the string, cutting it off. He then proceeded to wrap my arms, leg, and foot with smooth bandages, the foot being wrapped together with some kind of ointment. "How fare you?" he asked, wiping his brow.

I tested it out, flexing my muscles to check. It held pretty well. Thank you, spinner silk. "Not bad."

He smiled proudly at himself and went to pack the tools up, while I said a quick goodbye to him and headed back to my room. When in there, I immediately took a shower and tried to avoid the bandages while doing so. But, fortunately, I didn't have to, as the water would just slip away from them.

When I was done, my desk had a cup of what seems like tea. It was still hot, meaning that it was placed here rather recently. I took a sip. It tasted like tea but had this unique taste that normal tea didn't have. Maybe it was one of those Underlander herbs.

I didn't want to ponder it anymore and leaned onto my bed, closing my eyes and diving into my fantasies of killing the Bane in every and any possible way.

 _There was pitch black again. But this time, I couldn't feel a floor, only the sensation of floating. I looked around, and there was a door which emitted light. Feeling as though it was the only way to go, I wadded towards it and opened the door. Once the door was open, there was a burst of light, and I felt the ground._

 _I forced my eyes open and blinked to adjust to the light. Scanning my surroundings, I was in a room. In front of me was a sickly girl in bed, breathing in deep, slow breaths. When I saw her deathly pale face, I immediately knew who she was._

 _The ghost. She was here. But why?_

 _Before my question could be answered, someone spoke._

 _"Do you want to know who sent me?" It was... Me. But I wasn't saying anything. No one was in the room expect me and her. Yet the voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere. What was this?_  
 _The ghost replied. "It's fine. I know you did." The 'you' was harsh and full of hatred. That wasn't the original dialogue._

 _"Aren't you scared?" The voice that wasn't me asked._

 _Her head shook slightly. "No, not really."_

 _"Hm. A shame. Any last words?"_

 _"Make it worthwhile." And with that, her smile and eyes because wider and wider, to the point where they stretched beyond their physical limitations. She -no- it stared at me with its bulging eyes and spoke with the same distorted voice. "You monster."_

 _It instantly leapt out of the bed and chomped my right arm, ripping it away from my body. I screamed and writhed in pain, my shrill voice echoing in its lair. I kicked it away and it hit the wall, cracking it. Blood splurged out like a fountain. I tried to stop the flow, but whatever I did didn't work as the blood leaked out. My head was getting light. I looked at the monster before me._

 _Its head was twisting upside down, cracking the bones loudly as it ate my arm, munching it quickly like a starving animal. And like an animal, it stood on its four limbs and growled, pacing around me to get a clear shot at wherever it wanted to hit. I wasn't going to let it do that. I took a defensive stance and faced it. I was weaponless had only one arm, but I still should be able to manage._

 _The bed was gone, I noticed. We were in an empty room, illuminated with dim lights._

 _It cocked its head and smiled wickedly, eyeing at my other arm. I reflexively brought it closer to me, afraid that it would do it again._

 _Suddenly, there was a tingle from my once-eaten arm. I looked over and saw it... growing back? But it wasn't my skin color. The arm was pale and had bits of dead skin. The arm that was growing back wasn't mine. It was the monster._

 _Once I had finished that thought, its arm finished regenerating, and the end result was a hand the size of a human head, together with nails so sharp that you could easily mistake them for claws. I screamed again, and the arm made no hesitation to grab my face and clench it tight, forcing my mouth to clamp shut and thus biting my tongue. It then forced my head to turn. I resisted with my other arm and head, but the abomination kept pressing and was so much stronger._

 _To weaken my resolve, it lifted one of its cold fingers and shoved the whole thing into my left eye. All I could manage was a gritted shout. The searing pain was unbearable, so much so that tears began to weld up._

 _My head went forty-five degrees to the right. The monster wasn't there. Ninety. The arm did not stop. A hundred and thirty-five. I could hear my bones cracking. The arm still persisted. A full one-eighty. I couldn't feel anything from my neck down anymore. I could barely breathe. I should've been dead already. Something kept me alive. But what? Was it the fear? The determination to be alive? I didn't know. I don't want to know._

 _The arm wiped my tears away with its claws, almost blinding my other eye and clearing my blurry vision. The monster was in front, smiling away._

 _"Want to know how it feels?" it asked in a smooth tone._

 _I nodded my head ever so slightly. I knew what I had done to her. I wanted this to end. It giggled like a little girl, jumped onto my shoulders and caressed my neck; its hot breath blowing on it, painfully tickling it. The coldness of its fingers didn't help, it only worsened the pain._

 _"Aah~ Poor you~" it said gently, stroking my neck like I was a house pet._

 _"Finish me off." I wanted to say that, but my deformed throat only spoke out "...ini... ...e... ...f..."_

 _It chuckled at my failed attempt to speak and responded by biting my neck with its lips softly. Its mouth opened widely, displaying a set of razor sharp fangs. I knew what it was going to do next, so I closed my eye, not wanting to look at the monstrosity before me._

 _But the monster forced my eye open and chomped my windpipe, crushing it. I couldn't scream. All I could see and hear was teeth moving and constant crunching sounds. Then, calming darkness._

I opened my right eye. The first thing I felt was a liquid dripping out of my right eye. In a panic, I jolted back up and immediately touched that eye. It was tears, not blood. I sighed in relief. I then noticed someone was holding my right hand. I wiped my tears away, held myself together and focused on the figure as my blurred vision was vanishing.

It was Ella. Her head was resting on my bed and was right next to my leg; her long silver hair brushing it. Two hands were clasped in my right hand, with a finger touching the damaged bracelet, as if she was begging me to stop. I ran my fingers on her palm. It felt smooth and cool to the touch. She chuckled at the feeling while still being asleep. Her laugh and touch reminded me of my nightmare, so I stopped. Even with that haunting my mind, I smiled back to her.

 _"Aww, how cute."_

 _Shut up._

He said no more. I used the silence to look around my room, to see what had Ella brought me. There, on my desk, was a refilled cup of tea and a place of food next to it. The smell told me that it was still warm. My stomach growled in hunger.

 _"Better eat while it's still hot. I know your last breakfast wasn't."_

I rolled my eyes.

 _I'm well aware of that._

Carefully sliding my hand away from hers, which earned a groan from her, I got out and slowly carried her onto my bed. Her body automatic shifted to a more comfortable position. Feeling satisfied, I took a quick but quiet shower to not wake her beauty- no, to not wake her up. Yeah.

My efforts weren't in vain, as when I was done, she was still sleeping. Using the skills I had in the past, I sneaked towards my desk without a sound and ate in silence. While I was thoroughly enjoying my meal, she stirred and naturally awoke.

I chewed my food and had to cover my mouth to not show her my silent laughter because the way she woke up was pretty funny. Sitting upright with messy hair in a daze and looking around with the face of confusion, even cocking her head at me.

"What?"

To give her a hint, I signalled her to look down to see whose bed she's sleeping on. She did, and then it dawned on her. I could see the many expressions on her face. The realization, the embarrassment, the shock. I observed as red began to flush from her cheeks to the entirety of her body. It was quite entertaining to watch. Or maybe it's just my sadistic side talking.

She swiftly got out of the bed and hung her head low as she walked towards me timidly, adjusting her clothes and hair while doing so.

Before she could say a word, I put my finger on her lips. "It's okay. You don't need to apologize." She blushed deeper, probably in shame, and nodded. I returned back to eating as she stood to one side and watched, as always.

After I had finished, I said the usual "Thanks for the meal.", but this time, added in a few more words. "Sorry about this." I showed the scarred bracelet to her.

She had a twinkle of disappointment in her eyes. "It is fine. I am glad that it is of use to you."

"Yeah, this really saved my skin from Ripred." At the mention of 'saved' and 'Ripred', a smile washed away the sadness in her, clearly glad that it was.

I gulped down the last piece of food with the tea and stood up, ready for a fight. "So, training as usual?"

She shook her head. "No, Warrior. You have to go to the council meeting today. Vikus had ordered it. I am to lead you to your destination."

Oh, the Prophecy of Bane. Almost forgotten about that.

 _"Says the one who fantasized about killing the Bane."_

 _Whatever. You know that my brain's hazy in the morning._

"Well then, lead the way."

* * *

 **Woah. Almost 4K words (if you exclude the Author's Notes)! That's pretty impressive for me. Hope I portrayed Ripred right!**

 **And as you can see, the genre is romance. What do you think of my added writing of romance? Is it alright? Is it out of place? Please tell me. I really need to know. Constructive criticism is heavily advised.**

 **Question: Can you find out what caused his "missing" arm to be regrown? It's quite subtle. There are hints in and out of the dream.**


	6. Chapter 6

**This will be a pretty boring and short chapter. Not really much to say.**

* * *

I went to the armory for my belt before Ella led me to the same room that I had went before: the start of the Prophecy of Gray. Except that this room had way more council members than before.

Clearly I was late, as they had already started babbling about the Bane. Everyone, except Lizzie, bowed when I had entered the room. I decided to sit next to Lizzie as she was the nearest one, while Ella stood behind me. I told her that she could sit down as well, but she politely refused, stating that she didn't have the right. I shrugged in response and turned to Lizzie.

"So you decided to come after all, huh?"

She nodded. Stubborn little kid.

"What did I miss? Fill me in."

So she did. According to her, Vikus had called a council meeting to discuss our journey to find and kill the Bane. The only thing the council members agreed on was that I needed to get moving as soon as possible. Lizzie informed me that she had been spotted by rats on her way to Regalia. She didn't tell me that in the prophecy room. She had been keeping secrets. I kept that in mind.

Since they knew that she was in the Underland again, they would surely take extra measures to conceal the Bane and hunt her down.

Apparently Regalian spies also had brand-new information and had just locked in on an area where they thought the Bane was hiding. Although none of them had personally seen the creature, their sources indicated a place called the Labyrinth. It meant nothing to me, but it meant something to her.

"It'd be cool to try and get through a giant maze," Lizzie said excitedly. "Unless, of course, your life depended on it."

She had wanted to join in the council members to find out which way to travel to the Labyrinth, but they had pleaded her not to, and to leave it to the more experienced.

We went back to hearing the conversations of the council. Although they examined many options, every route that went through the web of Underland tunnels was judged too dangerous. While the humans controlled a much wider range of the Underland than they had before the war, the Labyrinth was situated in a remote corner of the rats' land. So remote, in fact, that most rats never even went there. But if they had the Bane there, it was sure to be guarded.

"That leaves the Waterway," Vikus said with a frown. "It is not ideal, but it is the least treacherous."

"What of the serpents? Their mating season is nigh," said Howard.

No wonder they had Howard here. But was he joining us, or just giving advice? I hoped it was the former, as he had told me that he could aid others in water.

"A good point," agreed Vikus. "And yet another reason to begin the journey at once. Perhaps the party can slip by before the serpents awaken."

And about the serpents. Was one of them the one I had seen when I was sending Lizzie and her father off?

"Now, Lizzie, there is something we need to address," said Vikus. "It is the opinion of the council that Boots should remain under guard in Regalia while the Warrior pursues the Bane."

"She can stay here," replied Lizzie. "Dulcet can take care of her. It's the safest choice anyway."

"What about you, Ryan? Do you also wish for Boots to stay?"

"Yeah. What Lizzie said."

The council members nodded and murmured in agreement. I almost rolled my eyes. It took them this long to decide? Besides, the lesser the people, the more freedom I have.

Vikus then asked - which was more of an order - Ella to escort Lizzie to the museum. I volunteered to follow them, in case she decided to bring along something that she couldn't carry with her.

This time, the Underlanders decided to categorize the museum in neat rows, filled with carved signs on top of them. The weapons category caught my eye, while Lizzie went to the lights section.

I scanned through the rack. Pickaxes, hammers, nails and the likes. They were mostly mining tools, with a few knives here and there. But what interested me was a sheathed machete lying on the corner. I had no idea who would bring that in a cave, but still, I picked it up, unsheathed and tested it, swinging it around. Surprisingly lighter than I thought. I found a small rock, aimed, and slashed down. It cut roughly in half. Not bad. It had a few scratches on the blade and hilt, but it'll do.

I wiped off the dust on the sheath with the flat surface of a hammer and kept it horizontally at the back of my belt, almost perfectly. It was nostalgic, getting used to the feeling once again.

Lizzie called my name, and when I turned to her, a life jacket flew poorly towards me. I caught them with no effort.

"Why two?" I asked. "I can swim, you know."

"In case someone else doesn't. Three is too much, and one is too selfish," she said while holding another life jacket and adjusting her bag, which bulged what seemed like flashlights and a roll of something.

I shrugged. "Yeah sure, let's go with that."

Ella told us that we're supposed to meet 'down the river', and led us there. I noticed Lizzie's eyes drooping when she heard river.

"Still regretting that, huh?"

She nodded silently.

When we arrived at the docks, I was surprised. A team of Underlanders were loading up two boats that were suspended by ropes at dock level above the river. They were long, narrow vessels that reminded me of boats I'd seen in museums before, boats Native Americans had used hundreds of years ago. But secured to the bottom of each was a large gray triangular fin. A real fish fin. Strapped along the sides of the boats were more fins that could be extended and retracted horizontally as needed. A curved bone was attached to the back of each boat as a rudder.

And all this while I had thought that we were using the boats Lizzie had escaped from. Damn, these Underlanders never failed to impress.

"Why boats? Isn't it faster by air?" I asked Vikus, who was overseeing the loading. I wanted to get to the Bane is fast as possible. Travelling by water was going to take so much longer.

"Ah, yes, but the Waterway is vast and provides few hospitable places to rest. No bat would have the stamina to cross it, so much of your trip must be by sea," said Vikus.

I inwardly complained, but what could I do?

Just then, Twitchtip slunk out onto the dock, with a paw covering her snout. Considering our previous encounter, she was the quiet loner type. I could do with some peace and quiet while travelling. I wonder, how strong was she? She had survived the Dead Land on her own, so I estimated that she was at least above Fangor and Shed combined.

I saw Ella helping Lizzie put on the slightly oversized life jacket - or at least, trying to help - as Boots and Temp were playing beside them.

She couldn't fasten the belts. Feeling bored, I went up to them and clipped the belts, making sure it was tight enough to be secure, but loosened enough for her to breathe. Ella seemed ashamed at my help. Lizzie appreciated the help and answered Boots' questions of where she was going and so on.

During that, I saw the Queen, Solovet, Mareth, and Howard come out of the palace. The Queen and Solovet were wearing fashionable gowns, not the long pants they had traveled in before. I snickered, but made sure I had covered my mouth. Who would've known that even the gowns were royal-like.

"You're not going, aren't you?" I asked the Queen, not because I pitied her, but because I wanted to tease her.

It worked. "I... cannot. This has been deemed too unnecessarily dangerous for a queen," she replied, glancing at Vikus.

"So who's going?"

"Well, first you should know that we had no lack of volunteers," Vikus said, as if to reassure me that this was going to be a guaranteed good time, which wasn't wrong. "But the openings were very limited. Besides yourself, Ares, Lizzie, and Twitchtip, we will be sending Mareth and Howard and their fliers."

That makes it eight people. Not too bad. At least it's smaller than last time. But one more was missing.

"So how about Ripred? Isn't he coming too?" I wanted to talk to him about our abilities.

"He left this morning for the Dead Land," said Vikus. "Oh, I see the boats are loaded! We had best get you on your way!"

Ares landed beside us. "The river is too hazardous. We will fly to the Waterway and then board the boats."

I nodded and hopped on, followed by Lizzie. Twitchtip slid into one of the big boats and flattened herself in the middle. Her nose poked over the side, trying to catch the breeze that blew up the river.

Teams of bats lifted the two loaded boats by rope loops and started down the river. As Ares took off after them, Lizzie shouted goodbyes to Boots and then hugged me tightly, which I was trying to get used to. I was becoming familiar with the journey now, the fading lights of Regalia, the glimmer as we passed the crystal-walled beach where I had had his first encounter with rats, and finally the wide-open expanse of the Waterway.

We flew a few miles out over the Waterway before the teams of bats lowered the boats into the water and took off. Howard's bat landed in the boat with Twitchtip. Ares settled in the second boat, as did Mareth's bat.

"This is Andromeda. She is my bond," Mareth said, touching his hand to the wing of his gold-and- black-speckled bat.

I greeted with a simple "Hey." while Lizzie did with a more excited "Hello! Nice to meet you!"

"I am honored to meet you also, Overlanders," she said.

Mareth also introduced us to Howard's bond, Pandora, a graceful bat with beautiful rusty red fur. All she said to us was "Greetings."

Vikus had flown out after them to bid them good-bye. "Lizzie, I forgot to deliver you this," he called. His large gray bat swooped over our boat, and something fell to the floor. She picked up a scroll and, from what I could see, found a copy of "The Prophecy of Bane" written in Nerissa's elegant hand.

"Fly you high!" Vikus headed back toward Regalia, giving us an encouraging wave. Lizzie waved back in thanks.

I sat at the middle and observed the giant vessel. It rose up to my elbows when I stood. It was about twenty feet long and made of some kind of animal hide stretched over a bone frame. A two-foot-wide strip of floor ran down the center of the boat. About a third of the way from the front of the boat, Mareth hoisted a wooden mast into the air and secured it at the hinged base. It was only the second wooden object I had seen used in the Underland, the first being the door to Sandwich's room. There were a few seats fashioned from leather, and a lot of supplies. Especially food.

"Why do we have so much? I don't remember seeing that in our first journey." I pointed at the stack of food.

"The shiners will require a great deal of food," said Mareth.

"Who are they?" Lizzie asked while I guessed the species. Jellyfishes? Glow worms?

"Vikus did not tell you?" began Mareth.

"Obviously not."

That put a smile on him. "On long voyages, we cannot carry enough fuel to provide light. So we hire shiners to aid us," said Mareth. "They should be here directly - yes, see... here they come now."

Both Lizzie and I looked out in the dark and spotted two points of light. I used echolocation, and 'saw' giant flying insects, approaching us with flickering lights. I automatically knew what they were. So did Lizzie.

"Fireflies," mumbled Lizzie; her eyes widening in amazement. Their lights brightened most of the vessel. I could see why we needed them. But I wonder what their personalities were. Did they relish in the fact that they were extremely important to the Underlanders, or not acknowledge their importance at all?

"Greetings, Shiners," said Mareth with a bow.

"Greetings, all," one of the fireflies said in a high and impossibly annoying whiny voice. "I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and she is Zap."

Okay, maybe they hadn't used their voices that much.

"It was my turn to make the introduction," wailed Zap. "Photos Glow-Glow made it last time."

My standards for them were getting lower by the second.

"But we both know that, as a male, I am more visually pleasing to humans," Photos Glow-Glow said, his rear end blinking in a variety of colors. "Zap can only make one color, and it is yellow."

"I hate you!" shrieked Zap.

So much for peace and quiet.

* * *

 **Note: I should be quite busy starting from April onwards. Just a warning to y'all. So this might probably be in hiatus during that time period.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry if this chapter looks bad in the second half. It's been too long (3 and a half ish months is considered a lot of time, yes) since I wrote. I'm quite rusty. Scratch that, I'm very rusty. Give me some weeks and I'll hopefully be back from what I had before. Well then, here we go.**

My hand and patience were tightly gripping the edge of the boat, almost tearing a piece off. I was losing my mind to a pair of babbling light bulbs. They argued about where they would sit, they argued about who should take the first shift; they basically argued about everything. Even Lizzie was biting her fingernails. For once, I missed Ripred's bone munching.

"Mareth, do something," I whispered angrily.

The seemingly calm veteran tried to feed them to distract them, but they just bickered about each other's table manners.

"Must you talk with your mouth full, Zap?" Photos Glow-Glow said. "It kills my appetite."

"This from someone who just sat in his milk!" Zap said, and apparently she had him there, because his rear end went bright red in anger, and he chomped on a mushroom in silence for at least thirty seconds. Thirty quiet blissful seconds.

"Are they always like this?"

"In truth, these two are not as bad as some others I have traveled with," whispered back Mareth. "I once saw a pair try to fight to the death over a piece of cake."

"They can't fight?"

Mareth nodded. "They are not very capable fighters, and they tire quickly. So they ended up accusing each other of cheating, and giving up. Then they sulked for several days," said Mareth.

I would love that, but to get to that result, I had to tolerate more hours of useless accusations. I wonder if threatening works.

"Can I k-- Do we really need them?"

Mareth's shoulders slackened; his serene facade broke. "Unfortunately, yes."

Apparently, Lizzie couldn't take it anymore and tugged on one of the male's wings, almost tearing it off.

"Listen, you overgrown light bulb, I need your rattling mouth zipped until I get home. Got it?"

She's that aggravated, huh?

He was both confused and offended. "I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and will answer to no other name!"

"It's an Overlander insult," I explained. It sorta was. "She can't pronounce Photos Glow-Glow right now."

"Well, then, I cannot understand her!" said the firefly.

"Allow me to translate," Twitchtip said, not even bothering to move. "She said if you don't stop your incessant babble, that big rat sitting in the boat next to you will rip your head off."

That shut him up for good; his light turning a darker shade of red. There was finally silence. My trust in Twitchtip rose, but not significantly.

We were far out into the Waterway now. The torches had been extinguished when the shiners arrived, and the fireflies' glow only illuminated the immediate area. Lizzie snapped on her brightest flashlight for a minute and shone it around. I followed her light. All signs of land had vanished.

There were waves -- which would be a disadvantage for me if they became heavier -- and a decent breeze. We sailed further. Mareth and Howard ran silken sails up the masts and were preoccupied with steering the two vessels. Our bats settled comfortably together and dozed off. I noticed that Ares didn't join them. Did they hate him?

I went up to him. "How long do you think this journey would take?"

"At least five days," said Ares. "If we flew, we could make it in less time, but it is believed that very few bats could make the journey. No one has ever tried it."

I scoffed. " _Believed._ Do you really take that to heart? _You_ can break that myth." I meant it. Ares was impressively strong and swift.

"I have thought that I might try it someday, to see if I could accomplish it," he admitted.

'I', not 'we'. Means that he would do it alone. But who would bear witness to his feat? I bet he would be a legend if he did make it. The word 'legend' shifted my thinking to the Bane. The supposedly giant unbeatable white rat. I grinned gleefully.

"Can the rats swim?"

"Yes, but not as far out as we are. The rats cannot reach her here," he replied.

My grin slackened a little. Bummer. No thrill in that.

"Have you ever killed a rat by yourself?"

Ares shook his head. "No. Together with Henry, yes. I flew while he held the sword."

"Any tips?"

"The neck is vulnerable. The heart, but one must get past the ribs. Through the eyes to the brain. Under the foreleg is a vein that bleeds greatly. If you strike at the belly, you may not kill instantly, but the rat will likely die within days from infection."

"I see." So it was the same as humans. Our conversation ended there.

Mareth called a dinner break and passed around food. The fireflies ate with gusto, even though they had just been fed.

" _Deep breaths. They'll only be here for now," said other me._

 _Right. Or they won't be if they 'accidentally' drown._

 _"You do know we need them, right?"_

 _Fine... Til the end of the journey it is._

 _"That's the spirit!"_

After everyone had eaten, Mareth lowered the sails in his boat and hooked the front of his craft to the back of Howard's with a towrope. "Howard and I will take turns sailing the lead boat while the rest sleep. But we need someone on guard and one shiner on duty at all times."

"Zap will take the first shift," said Photos Glow-Glow almost instantly. "My light requires more energy."

"It is a lie!" howled Zap. "I can only make one color, but the effort is the same. He only says this so that he will be given more food and less work!"

"Photos Glow-Glow will take the first shift," said Twitchtip. "Or I'll shred his wings into ribbons."

So that settled that. "Who wants to watch with him?"

"We are many and can switch guards every two hours or so," said Mareth.

I didn't want Photos to complain while I was sleeping, so I offered the first shift.

In the lead boat, Howard took his place by the rudder to steer. His bat folded its wings to sleep. Twitchtip, who had barely moved since they left Regalia, closed her eyes. Zap's soft yellow light faded out, and she began to snore.

Lizzie took out her life jacket and wrapped herself with a blanket in the stern of our boat. Ares perched next to her. Mareth stretched out on the floor, with Andromeda nearby. Photos Glow-Glow turned his bulb to a steady orange light and lit on the bow, a few feet in front of Mareth, illuminating the space between the boats.

I sat on the cushy pile of supplies and watched our surroundings. It was quiet, except for the lapping of the waves, soft breathing, and firefly snores. Perfect for echolocation. But it was hard to 'see' below the surface of the water, as it was constantly moving and too 'solid' for my echolocation to get through. Therefore, my eyes were always scanning the water, wary of any underwater creatures.

The sounds of waves increased slightly, almost cancelling out the snores. I eyed at the Waterway. Water. Too little and you'd dehydrate. Too much and you'd drown. The latter triggered a suppressed nightmare, so I distracted myself by continuing to think of ways to kill the Bane.

I closed my eyes to get a better picture of my imagination, but that was a fatal mistake. Something appeared out of the water and wrapped tightly around my ankles, yanking my legs towards it with absurd strength.

With lightning fast reflexes, I stabbed my dagger to hold onto the edge.

"Ares! A little help!"

Then a second yank forced me to lose my grip, and I plunged into the water. I could barely hold my breath. That shout had exhaled most of my air. I stretched an arm out above the surface, hoping that Ares would save me, as much as I hated help.

Right before my arm had completely sunken in, I felt a grab above and instantly knew it was him. A tug of war ensued, with me as the rope.

"Pull, Ares, pull!" I shouted after spitting out the salty water.

But Ares' strength wasn't enough. It was touch and go, with the creature dragging me deeper and Ares dragging me back out. Feeling irritated and impatient, I flung a dagger to the tentacle. It hit, and it's grip loosened. Just then, Ares gave a big heave-ho, and I flew out of the water. I dangled upside down a moment, my soaked shoes locked in Ares's claws, before he dropped me on the floor of the boat.

"Warrior!" I heard Mareth cry. "Can you fight?"

I took a good look at our situation. Tentacles were shooting up over the sides of the boat right and left, their suckers latching on to anything they came in contact with. The crew was fighting back with whatever they had -- swords, teeth, claws, pincers -- trying to sever the appendages from the ghastly creatures looming in the dark water beneath them.

"Hell yeah!" I whipped out my daggers, ready to slaughter. My head hummed. The throbbing pain on my leg dulled significantly. A tentacle lashed out for my arm. I slashed it down. Yes! I could control it, so far.

Photos Glow-Glow and Zap were blazing. But even without their help, I could see by the light of the water, which shone an unearthly phosphorescent green.

The three bats were in flight, diving down and ripping with their claws. Mareth and Howard were slashing away with swords. Twitchtip was a whirlwind of gnashing teeth.

"Warrior! The princess!" warned Ares.

I turned to see three tentacles coming straight for Lizzie, who was trying to use her extra life jacket as a shield with wobbly legs. I made a frustrated grunt. When will she _not_ be the damsel in distress? I dashed and sliced the assailants easily.

"Mareth! Short sword!" A sword flew, and I caught it. It should be light enough for her to swing and long enough to at least chop the tentacles off in one hit. I showed her a demonstration through ruthless slicing of some incoming tentacles.

"Please tell me you know how to fight." I said, giving it to her.

She accepted the weapon with shaking hands. "Luxa taught me a few things."

"And there goes my luck..." I mumbled. I eyed at her life jacket. "Take that off. It'll hinder your movements."

"No."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, whatever. Make sure you don't die." A tentacle whipped out at her. Lizzie sliced. It went limp in a few seconds. "Good. Just like that."

She giggled. "Thank you. You're nicer than I thought."

A memory triggered via those words. I could see my youngest brother's face on her.

My face darkened. "No. I'm not." The face put on a frown and vanished. I couldn't help but add in more words in spite of myself. "Don't always expect me to save you. I'm not your brother." And with that, I left her, forcing her to fend for herself.

I spared a glance once I was a few metres away from her. A tentacle came forth. She dodged, then slashed it down. Its remains twitched for a few seconds before becoming lifeless. The classic tactic of reverse hit and run. The Queen taught her the coward way, huh? To be honest, it kinda suited her.

Thankfully, I was distracted by several big tentacles all targeting me. I smirked. Such eagerness. My head buzzed. My control was slipping. I dug my fingernails in to hold on. But this time, it didn't work. I was flickering in and out. Damn. Have to make this quick.

This time, all of them came at me simultaneously, aiming straight for my limbs.

 _Ooh, feisty. My favourite._

I readjusted my stance. Right arm up, left arm down; both bent towards the opposite direction. At the last possible second, right when the tentacles thought they could reach me, my arms spun around, demolishing them.

 _Is this seriously their best? How disappointing._

Right after I finished those thoughts, multiple tentacles erupted out of the sea. My boat was much more surrounded than before. My head buzzed, stronger this time. I saw the shocked faces of everyone. They had stopped fighting and were just staring at them; their mouths gaping open as if they had seen the end of the world. Mareth even released his sword.

Most of the tentacles started to grip the ends of the boat, trying to rip it to shreds with its huge suction cups, while some of them were on the lookout, wary of attackers.

Adrenaline pumped in my veins, surging throughout my entire body. I hadn't experienced any risk greater than this before. It was... quite exciting, actually.

With a mighty roar, I charged towards the nearest tentacles and sliced them clean off. The ones beside them hissed furiously at me and assaulted. They were so slow. They were dead in milliseconds.

I continued my attack, decapitating them more and more. Heads were rolling left and right. I could hear screams coming from them. I was drenched. Soaked by the blood of my enemies. It was so easy. Too damn easy. Did I mention how easy this was? My god, it was easy.

But they weren't enough. This wasn't a challenge at all. No difficulty. I suddenly felt pissed. Angry that they didn't prove their worth. I wildly swung my daggers at the final one with a battlecry, purposely cutting shallow wounds so that it would suffer like how I was feeling inside. The sound of agony by the creature was music to my ears. It was bliss.

So useless. A waste of time. Mood killer.

Someone called my name and tightly locked my arms and legs. He shouted at me, screamed at me as if I was a spoilt child.

"Stop shouting!" I shouted, equally as loud as him. I tried to pry away from his muscles of muscles, but two jabs on my wrists made my hands limp. My beautiful, glistening daggers were out of my hands.

"Put him out," commanded the fat slab of arms.

A blurry figure I didn't notice was in front of me. Something was shoved into my throat. Then a slosh of warm liquid. I swallowed out of reflex. The thing went inside. Its effects kicked in. So did I. In the knee. Or was it on? I didn't know. I do know I landed a hit, however, judging by the groan.

My body felt violated. Numb. I was losing it. My consciousness. It was fading away. Fading to white. A blank state. I fought it, but it was useless. No amount of determination would be able to get me out of that. I eventually stopped fighting and let it ravage. Overcome my every cell.

Slowly, my body relaxed, and I passed out. A voice managed to crack in before I did.

"Sleep well, Warrior. You'll need it."

 **And there that. Chapter 7 complete. Whew. Finally.**

 **Should I apologize again? Yeah, I should. Sorry. I don't think any would be worth the time you all had waited, but I'm sorry. I really am. One of the many regrets I have was this. Not having consistency. I'll try. At least, I hope I do.**

 **Anyways, now that's out of the way, feel free to kill me off with critical criticism. Point out the flaws I have and had made. I deserve it. See y'all next time. Probably next month. Ugh, school. How thrilling.**

 **Question time. In which paragraph did Ryan _start_ to lose control of himself, excluding "flickering in and out"? It's quite subtle. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Very important note at the end of this chapter.**

I was enveloped by snakes. Everywhere, there were snakes. They were hissing, hissing at me. They coiled around my laying body; their scales rubbing on my skin. Mouths open, fangs unleashed. They found a corpse to nest: Me.

Their blades bit on my leg, tearing off my flesh like it was cake. There was no pain. Only numbness.

A face appeared on the midnight sky. Another snake. A giant king cobra. Its eyes flamed red. I presumed it was the one who ruled the others.

I spoke to it. "Hello, devil."

It opened its mouth, but it didn't speak. Rather, many did. They were cursing at me in different languages, most of which I'd heard before. I could hear their unbridled rage being thrown to me. I could picture their angry faces.

I felt... satisfied. Somehow, I knew I earned this, but I didn't know why.

A multitude of cussing later, their faces appeared on them; all flushed red. There was no fangs on them anymore. They were shouting in my ears now. Some even strangled, slithering to my limbs. My neck was left alone. I let them do it. Seemed that mere words wouldn't satisfy them.

The cobra closed the distance between us. It finally spoke in its own voice.

"Why?" A male. A child. A boy.

"Why what?"

"Why did you kill us?" he asked innocently.

"Because it was my job."

"And if it wasn't?"

"I'll still do it."

"Why?"

"Kid, you wouldn't understand."

"Why!?" he urged. The snakes tightened their grip. I could feel my arms and leg popping out. I gritted my teeth, enduring the sudden burst of pain.

I remember how I had ended the conversation. I had sighed and placed my hands on the sides of his neck, crushing it with a simple "Goodbye."

Now it was the reverse. Now he was here doing the murdering, and mine was slow.

"To simplify things, there's too much shit in the world, and I plan to get rid of it. Well, to me at least."

A pause. "Why?"

"God damn it, stop asking! Always with the questions. Kids these days, I swear."

The cobra blinked and cocked its head. A snake dropped from his eyes. Then another. His mouth contorted to a frown. He started sobbing uncontrollably.

"WHY? WHY? WHY?"

The newly formed mass of snakes slithered into my gaping wounds from my leg. They wiggled inside, munching on anything blocking their path. My flesh, bones, organs and all were being decimated.

It was disgustingly painful. Painfully disgusting. I was being eaten alive. I tried to scream to relieve myself from the pain, but a piercing bite on my lips from a nearby snake stopped it. His "why" turned into wails. All I could hear was a banshee cry. I wasn't deaf, surprisingly. No, that wasn't right. I couldn't go deaf.

My lower body was already gone before I knew it. All that was left was the top. Suddenly, I felt one snake reach my unprotected heart. It didn't sink its teeth in. Instead, it encircled, bashing against it with its rough exterior. The cobra was closing in, still bawling. His cries became much louder in close proximity.

My body naturally resisted. It couldn't take the pain much longer, spasming uncontrollably. But the more I tried, the tighter the snakes were. I tried forcing myself to relax, but it was pointless. I was too weak.

Emptiness filled my hostage heart. I was weak. I am weak. I can't stop them. So weak. So tired. I wanted to sleep.

The cobra was right in my face. We locked eyes. I could see his innocence, his confusion, his hatred.

My heart was beating faster. I was inhaling quick breaths. Sweating all over. Something replaced the void in my heart. What was it? I searched for the words. I was... I was...

Scared. Frightened. Terrified. Horrified.

Then, my limbs popped.

My heart: Squished.

My head: Chomped.

I found myself in a better body. No more slithering monsters. What were they called again? My mind was a blur of letters and images. I ransacked my brain to form that word I was searching for.

...Snakes.

A memory flashed by before my very eyes. It replayed that very scenario. My body jerked up and my mouth opened, screaming at the top of my lungs; my throat unusually dry. But I could only do so for a second as something clamped it shut and forcibly moved my head back down to a soft material. The slam hurt. It also made the memories vanish, thankfully.

"Ow." I managed to croak.

"I am sorry, Warrior. But we need you to be silent for a while," said a familiar but aggressive voice.

I blinked. Thrice. My vision focused on the face.

"Mareth?"

"Yes, Warrior?"

"Your grip's too tight."

He hesitated for a bit, before complying and stared at some direction. I sat up. I felt my bones cracking. I straightened my back. They satisfyingly popped. I did the same with my entire sore and stiff, sweaty body. I then took a swig of delicious water from my canteen beside me, with Twitchtip oddly staring at me. Once we made eye contact, she faced the opposite way. I didn't think much of it and continued swimming in my thoughts. One in particular stood out.

How long was I out?

My question was answered as I looked at whatever Mareth was looking at. On the bow of the boat, directly smiling down at me, was the Queen.

"Oh."

"I let you go off for one day, and look at the trouble you get into."

I smirked and tested my voice. "I didn't get into trouble. Trouble found me first, and she's right in front of me." It worked fine. So was my humor.

"Much trouble," said Mareth. Ah, no wonder he was using that tone with me.

"I cannot go back," she said; her smile still on. "It is too far now, and Aurora and I would most surely perish in the deep."

"Yes, you timed that nicely."

"I know."

Mareth's hands clenched. "I know you know. Everyone will know you knew if you ever arrive home in one piece to tell the tale."

I piped up. "You heard the man, Queen. He said 'if'. Your chances are pretty slim."

She ignored me and faced Mareth, glaring him down.

"Oh, Mareth, how long are you to stay angry with me? It has been at least a day already. No one will blame you for my disobedience."

I was flabbergasted. Not because of how she tried to sweet talk Mareth -- not that I care -- but because of what she said.

"Wait, a day!?"

Lizzie, inching closer to me, poked my shoulder. "Mareth will explain later."

"He better." I grumbled and eyed at the family feud before me, carressing my bandaged right leg. It was numb.

"That is much beside the point, Luxa!" barked Mareth. "This venture is extremely dangerous, and what if you die? You leave Regalia with Nerissa as a leader, and she is of age. Can you imagine what will happen then? To Regalia? To Nerissa?"

"She will have to abdicate," Howard said from somewhere in the other boat.

"She will do no such thing. She will rule if I die and not Vikus, and never you and your wretched sister!" She spat out the last word with extreme distaste.

That kept their mouths shut. Well, expect the noisy feasting fireflies. Seriously, what were their stomachs made of?

Howard broke the silence. "Is this what you think? That I want to be king? I believe you have me confused with another cousin."

Ooh. Nice burn. Even Lizzie flinched. I hid my smile.

"And do not judge me by Stellovet. She is wretched. I admit it. But I can no more control her than you could control Henry!" Howard equally spat out.

"If you think I will believe you innocent, I will not. I have seen you torment Nerissa," accused the Queen.

"When? When did I do this? I have barely spent five minutes with her altogether!"

"At the festival. When you set that lizard at her!"

"Set it? I did not set it! That was a rare color changer, and I thought it would amuse her to see it!"

"But Henry said he saw you -- !"

"Henry said? Henry said!? I cannot believe that even now you do not question things that Henry said, Luxa! Is he the one who told you I was after your crown?" Howard's voice rose in frustration. "Henry said!"

The arguement seemed to end there. "Can I talk now?" The participants of the quarrel stared at me. Mareth nodded.

"Finally," I sighed. "What happened during the day I was out?"

Mareth was the one who replied. "It was two, Warrior."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You were unconscious for almost two days."

Two days... That's 48 hours. Damn, that long? I could've trained during those days.

A thought popped up.

Wait, I lost control during the fight with the squids. I tried remembering my assumed rampage. There were cutting, screaming and... laughing? I couldn't get all of it. Only bits and pieces. Shit. That meant that they saw me. Oh crap, what would they think of their savior who couldn't even control himself? What would Ares think? That his bond isn't the skilled Warrior he think he was? That their greatest warrior had stupid anger management issues? Damn it. This was all because I was too weak.

I was now hesitant on asking Mareth. But I had to ask. I wanted, no, needed to know what his view was. He had to explain.

"What - what happened to me?"

I stammered. Out of all the things I could've done, I stammered. My god, that was embarrassing.

Mareth gave a sad smile. Oh no. That wasn't a good sign.

"You... lost control."

I buried my face in my hands. It was worse when someone else says it. "Go on," I said, my voice muffled. "Explain in detail."

"When they were retreating, you were still trying to hit them. The rest of us rested and were being mended by Howard, but you... You kept going, even after they had gone. That was when I had to stop you."

Wait... That wasn't right. I didn't remember myself embarrassingly slicing thin air. I lifted my head up to Mareth.

"But what about the tentacles trying to rip the boat apart?"

His head cocked. "They did no such thing."

"But I saw them! I saw you drop your sword! I saw you guys giving up!" I insisted.

He stared fiercely at me and shook his head. "I do not drop my sword in a battle, Warrior. Nor will I ever give up." My words must've stung his pride.

He was quick to realize his tone and forced himself to be calm. "It was not your fault, Warrior. Howard said that the venom must have affected your mind."

I looked at Howard for confirmation. His face was still red with anger, but he nodded nonetheless. I held in my laughter. The ridiculous convenient excuse was almost hilarious.

Mareth made it worse. "I, however, thought you were following your soldier's instincts and protecting us all."

A quiet "Ha!" slipped out. He didn't notice my implications. That was good.

"Mareth, please."

"You are right. I shall not embarrass you any further."

"That's not -- Forget it." I lifted my leg. "So, what's it look like under the bandages?"

"It is not for the faint of heart," said Mareth. "You may thank Howard for saving your leg."

I ignored his advice and peeked under them. My skin was covered in lumps, some big, some small, but all blaring red. I couldn't even spot my muscles. I wrapped them back. That was enough sightseeing for me.

"Ugh, thanks Howard." The Queen scowled at me. Weird. I gave her a confused look in exchange.

"I am trained in water aid. I have sworn to save anyone in peril related to the water," said Howard.

"If my cousin had been paying attention that night, there would be no need to be so grateful."

Great. An attitude problem. "Hey. Don't blame that on him. Blame the tentacles. They're the one who attacked me. And us. But mostly me."

Everyone was quiet for a minute, then Mareth spoke up. "We probably would still have been attacked. But it is crucial to stay wary on guard. Not only our own survival, but that of many hangs on this journey."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I messed up. I was distracted."

The Queen quipped in. "By what?"

I shrugged. "The Bane."

She eyed at me for a moment, maybe absorbing that information, then nodded sympathetically. The heck? I didn't need pity. Why did she do that? I sighed, perishing the thought of thinking it further.

Girls. I never understood them.

Mareth called a break for dinner. My stomach reminded me of my starvation. I immediately stood up and ran towards the meal, but after one step on my right leg, I went tumbling down.

Two hands broke my fall. My own and Howard's. He lifted me up by my arm and patted my back. I considered myself to be pretty light, so him doing that was no biggie.

"Are you alright, Warrior?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just not used to major injuries."

"Do you require help?"

"No. I can walk on my own."

I limped towards the food with Howard following behind and wolfed them down, almost choking on my meal. Once I was full, I laid down in satisfaction.

I then scanned the boat, searching for my empty spot, which was at the corner of the boat. But the Queen had stolen mine and was sharpening her sword with some sort of stone. I cursed silently. There was no "lone" spots other than that one. The other corners were either taken up by the rest or got stacked up with the supplies. I didn't want to whine about it, not when she was there. With nowhere else to go, I went up to my once-claimed spot and sat a couple of meters away from the Queen. She gave me a curious glare, but didn't push it and continued her work.

There was a moment of silence between us, maybe a few minutes, before she cut it with a question.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Better, I guess."

She tested the edge of her blade by splitting a strand of rope. It went cleanly through with a mere touch. She frowned in dissatisfaction and continued to work on it.

"You do know that's sharp enough, right?"

"Not sharp enough for what lies ahead of us," said the Queen. "It is doubtful many of us will survive."

I already knew that, with that sharpness, she could dice through skin like it was wet paper. They were convincing words. But not to me, to herself.

"Distracting, isn't it?"

She stopped. A sad smile formed. "You knew."

"Of course I did. I did the same thing before."

"Who were you 'before'?"

Ah, shit. Should've known she would say that. No point avoiding it now.

"Well... Let's see... I was really famous up there, in the Overland. A lot of people would pay me to help them out. But some people didn't like that, and want to kill or capture me because they think what I do is wrong."

Her eyes widened; some sort of realisation struck. "You are like me."

I shrugged. "More or less. I'm not royalty though, that's for sure." As soon as I said that, a thought sparked. "Why did you come?"

She eyed at me for a second before looking away. "I do not trust you much."

I laughed, but only for a short while; as to not attract attention. "Is that all?"

"Aurora and I have Ares to think of as well. We were friends longer than your recent bond. We do not want another..." She stopped.

I pushed on. "And...?"

She glared at me. "Is that not enough?"

"Yes, actually. I know you have something else to say. Something to do with royalty. Stellovet, for example."

She folded her arms. "What about her?"

"Well, hypothetically speaking, if I were you, I would've came here to shut her up as well."

She didn't say anything.

The bats, who apparently had been out flying around, came in for bedtime. Mareth put Howard's red bat, Pandora, and Ares on guard. Understandable. Reduce the risks by having more to look out.

Twitchtip was shifting around furiously. I raised an eyebrow. Was she that uncomfortable?

"Something's not right." She lifted her nose in the air; her head made an involuntary jerk to the side.

Daggers were in my hands instantly. "More squid?"

"No, it's not animal. But something's not right," she repeated.

"In what way?" asked Ares.

"With the water," she said.

"Is it tainted? Frigid? Filled with debris?" asked Howard.

"No," said Twitchtip. "I'd recognize those things. It's something I don't have a word for."

Something wrong with the water. I could think of two things.

"Describe it," I said.

"It's -- it's moving around. Spinning."

That confirmed it. It wasn't a tsunami. Howard must've realized it as well, as his eyes lit up.

"Whirlpool."

 **I'm sorry to say this, but I'm discontinuing this series. I no longer have any motivation to write this AU. These few months, I've tried to write it several times, but I just had no drive. As you all have obviously seen from my recent chapters, my writing abilities faltered a lot. I actually had this complete chapter for a year, but I kept procrastinating on whether I should upload it due to some confidence issues (no, it's not a typo, I meant to say confidence and not confident). All those months (probably a year) of waiting for the next chapter? They were all spent on other stuff of life that I enjoyed doing. I wrote this Killer series for fun, and also to write more fight scenes (which I still enjoy writing).**

 **I admit, these few chapters (from 3-8) were basically copy pasting most of the dialogue and description from the original. I did this in most of Killer as well, and the more I read it, the more cringy it gets. It feels so stale and crappy. Like, why did I set up this stupid personality problem with barely any foreshadowing purely just for the MC to act like what Gregor did in the books? And why did I set Ryan to be this almighty god? It's lazy and stupid writing! So dumb of me...**

 **Anyways, I would like thank all the reviewers that had spent their time to leave their words in this crappy AU of mine. I truly appreciate it. (Well, there's only 3 faithful reviewers, but whatev) Yknow what? I'll state all of y'all names.**

 **Clytuis - My first ever reviewer, ever. I had never thought that anyone would even bother to review my fanfiction. You commented little, but they were nice and sometimes comedic. So, thank you for doing that.**

 **Gwynevere Whisper - You stuck around and reviewed for basically every chapter I posted. Thanks for the feedback and questions you gave; sometimes I used your questions to kinda fix up the story.**

 **Vengeous - Man oh man, where do I start with you... You're practically the best thing a writer could've dreamed of. Long fantastic reviews with superb constructive criticism and great analogy. Your reviews literally changed my life, giving me the determination to become a better writer and pushing me forward to where I can be. I had never in my life expected you of all people (in a good way of course) to review this crappy fanfiction, but you did. You even took your time to PM!**

 **I don't have enough words to tell you guys how glad I am. I'll just simplify it with two words: Thank you.**

 **With that said, even though this AU series is gone, I still _will_ continue Just a Photograph (which is somewhere in my WIPs). Sadly, I won't be able to write the other TUC that I had planned, as I wrote those as a distraction to Killer: Bane, but it didn't work out, after much consideration and editing. After Just a Photograph, I won't be writing any more TUC fanfics (as of now).**

 **I'll still be writing fanfiction, but of a different series: RWBY (and maybe a few other series along the way). So if you're a fan of RWBY as well, help me review that fanfiction!**

 **TL;DR: Not continuing Killer series because of motivation problems. Tried writing it repeatedly but failed. Gave up. Thank you readers. Goodbye for now.**

 **Thank you for your time, TUC fans. I'll see you in Just a Photograph.**


End file.
